*4.3. Mental Health Apps and Subcategories with Respect to Age*

The results also showed age to be significant in 2019 with respect to the number of users; that is, adults are more likely to be users of mental health apps compared to emerging adults. The during-pandemic period also showed adults using mental health apps more as opposed to emerging adults with respect to average daily launches and number of days of use of mental health apps. In addition, when dividing mental health apps into categories of guidance-based and tracking-based, both the 2019 and 2020 datasets showed that the daily average number of launches and number of days of use for guidance-based apps was comparatively higher for adults than emerging adults. This means that whether the period was pre-pandemic or during-pandemic, adults' usage of mental health apps is higher than emerging adults. These findings align with the past research of Mackenzie et al. [16], which found that adults are highly likely to seek help regarding their mental health compared to emerging adults. Moreover, this also shows that, regardless of a crisis, emerging adults are not likely to seek mental health support, despite having access to them. The research undertaken by Kern et al. [18] showed that although young adults were interested in adopting mental health apps, their usage of these apps was limited. In general, mobile health apps attract young adults due to the immediate access provided by them; however, young adults tend to abandon them, citing costs and user experience as demotivating factors for continued use [39].
