Bridging the gap of healthcare underutilization: The appeal of a digital wellness platform among college men at two U.S. schools

Objective: Examine mental health service utilization among college men and explore reasons for unmet need between men that do and do not sign up for a university-sponsored digital wellness platform. Participants: Undergraduate men (N = 398) at two schools completed an online survey in Fall 2022. Concurrently, male-identifying students were invited to join MANUAL, a digital wellness platform offering gender-specific resources. Methods: Two-sample tests of proportions estimate group differences in reasons for avoiding mental health treatment and supplemental logistic regressions predict each reason by account activation and respondent characteristics. Results: Men that signed up for MANUAL more often avoided treatment because of embarrassment than those who did not activate their account. Conclusions: Because of their appeal over traditional in-person services, online platforms designed for and by young men may be able to bridge the gap between college men’s underutilization of mental health services and the resources they need.