*4.2. Mental Health Apps and Subcategories with Respect to Gender*

Overall mental health app usage showed an interesting outcome of gender being significant in 2020 with respect to the daily average number of launches and number of days of use of mental health apps. Moreover, in studying the guidance-based apps, gender was also significant in 2020 with respect to the daily average number of launches. For tracking-based apps, gender was again significant in 2020 with respect to the number of days of use. In all cases, males were found to be higher users compared to females. The previous research that was undertaken in this domain show males as having a more negative attitude when it comes to mental health treatment and hence, not receiving the care they need [37]. However, previous research undertaken in this domain mostly used self-reporting, and the participants may have not properly assessed themselves. The current study is conducted using objective data to measure the usage of mental health apps and identify the users of these apps. Therefore, the current results show male and female users to have similar usage pre-pandemic but increased usage by males during the pandemic. When using a self-reporting data collection method, e.g., surveys and interviews, whether for research or counselling purposes, females are more open when declaring their mental health help-seeking behavior as compared to males [16]. However, when using the objective measures of usage of mental health apps, both males and females had similar usage in 2019 and, hence, similar help-seeking behaviors. Further, in 2020, males had comparatively higher usage of mental health apps, which may suggest they are more likely to seek support for their mental health using digital means. This may relate to the stigma associated with seeking help when it relates to mental health, which is more prominent in males [38], and the tendency of males to prefer more anonymous options than females. In other words, our results suggest that while males are less likely than females to seek help through traditional means of therapy and health institutions, they are more open to adopting digital means for that same purpose.
