Symptom severity at first digital self-assessment is not associated with greater subsequent booking of professional care on a Saudi mental health platform: a cohort study of 5,524 users

Abstract

Background Digital mental health platforms routinely deliver self-administered symptom scales on the assumption that users with more severe symptoms are more likely to enter professional care. That assumption is rarely tested with linked participant-level data, and almost never in the Arabic-speaking Gulf. Objective To examine whether symptom severity at a user’s first self-assessment predicts booking a professional session within 90 days, across four symptom domains, on a Saudi commercial digital mental health platform. Methods Retrospective cohort analysis of 10,100 first assessments — depression, generalized anxiety, panic, and obsessive-compulsive scales — contributed by 5,524 unique users of the Talbinah platform and linked to demographic and session-booking records through a pseudonymous (SHA-256 hashed) user identifier. The primary outcome was any session booked within 90 days after the assessment. Severity was banded by the established cut-offs for the PHQ-9 and GAD-7, and by percentage of scale maximum for the panic and obsessive-compulsive measures, for which no severity thresholds are established. Per-scale multivariable logistic regression estimated adjusted odds ratios (aOR) for severity band (reference None/Minimal), adjusting for age, sex, and device type. Pre-specified sensitivity analyses used 30- and 180-day windows, an attended-session outcome, percentage-of-maximum banding applied to all four scales, and a subset with no prior booking (incident help-seeking). Reporting followed STROBE. Results Users were young (mean age 26.7 years, SD 8.1) and predominantly female (78.1%); 16.6% of first assessments were followed by a booking within 90 days. No severity band on any of the four scales was associated with higher odds of booking (severe vs None/Minimal: depression aOR 0.71, 95% CI 0.51–1.01; generalized anxiety 0.76, 0.49–1.16; panic 0.83, 0.52–1.31; obsessive-compulsive 1.01, 0.59–1.74). One severity contrast was statistically significant, in the opposite direction: moderate depression was associated with lower odds of booking (0.66, 95% CI 0.45–0.97). Older age (aOR ~1.2 per decade) and iOS device use (1.4–2.0) were associated with booking across scales. This absence of a positive severity–booking association was consistent across 30-, 90-, and 180-day windows, the attended-session outcome, and percentage-of-maximum banding; a nominal association for moderate anxiety seen under percentage banding did not persist with validated GAD-7 cut-offs. Estimates for the panic and obsessive-compulsive scales, which lack established severity thresholds, are exploratory. Conclusions On a Saudi digital mental health platform, greater self-reported symptom severity at first assessment was not followed by higher subsequent booking of professional care, consistently across specifications, and for moderate depression was associated with lower odds of booking; demographic and access-related attributes showed stronger associations with booking than symptom load did. Self-screening on its own appears insufficient as a pathway into care.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2026 · DOI ↗