BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Digital Mental Health
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1394647
This article is part of the Research TopicDigital mindfulness in primary care: Enhancing health through technologyView all 7 articles
Improvements in Physical Activity and Depression Symptoms: An Observational Study of Users of a Multi-Modal Digital Mental Health Platform
Provisionally accepted
Camille E Welcome Chamberlain1*
Shannon Lindsay2Brooke J Smith1Sara Sagui-Henson1Cynthia Castro Sweet1
Sara Levens2- 1Modern Health, San Francisco, California, United States
- 2University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
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Background: Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and depression symptoms have a longstanding, inverse relationship. This short-term study examined the patterns of MVPA and prevalence of depression symptoms among adults seeking care from an employer-sponsored, multi-modal digital mental health platform. Methods: Adults (n=755) with access to the platform enrolled in an online, observational study over 3 months. Baseline and longitudinal analyses were conducted on self-report MVPA and depression symptoms. Rates of activity and symptom improvement and maintenance were evaluated. Results: Approximately 47% of participants were physically underactive at baseline, defined as <150 minutes of physical activity per week. Men participated in more physical activity than women (p= 0.005), while women and individuals identifying as gender non-binary reported more depression symptoms than men (ps< 0.05). Older adults reported fewer depression symptoms than younger adults (r= -0.16, p<0.001). Baseline MVPA baseline was negatively correlated with depression symptoms (r= -0.19, p<0.001). Depression scores significantly improved, with 66.9% of adults at risk of depression improving or recovering (p< 0.001) and 94% of adults with low depression symptoms maintaining this status over time (p= 0.004). Physical activity participation improved by 217% among individuals deemed underactive at baseline (p< 0.001), while individuals who were active at baseline maintained high levels of physical activity (p= 0.06). Conclusions: Adults with access to a multi-modal digital mental health platform reported significant beneficial changes in depression symptoms and physical activity participation. Digital mental health tools may have the potential to elicit positive change in physical health domains, as well as mental health.
Keywords: Digital Health, mental health symptoms, physical activity, Depression, Technology
Received: 01 Mar 2024; Accepted: 16 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Welcome Chamberlain, Lindsay, Smith, Sagui-Henson, Castro Sweet and Levens. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Camille E Welcome Chamberlain, research@joinmodernhealth.com
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