“Behavioral health” is a massive field with dozens of methods and models to diagnose, assess, and treat everything from substance use disorders to depression and anxiety. This broad spectrum of conditions and unique population needs require a mix of education, exercises, and specialized support that cover a wide range of topics.
That’s why our digital health team is always working to expand and update our library of in-depth guides, relevant resources, and helpful information for individuals who want to become more engaged in their overall health.
“When creating a journey, our goal is to highlight important educational points, introduce evidence-based skills and activities, and ensure that people have the information they need to seek additional support, if needed,” says Christopher Stoudt, Manager of Digital Health at NeuroFlow, “We take a trauma-informed approach and focus on normalizing mental health conditions to help people understand that they are not alone, that whatever they are experiencing is not their fault, and that help is available.”
Uncovering the Most Popular Content on NeuroFlow
We wanted to understand, among the diverse behavioral health content we provide, what topics resonate most with individuals who use NeuroFlow.
To find out, we looked at the most viewed audio meditation guides, video explainers, and exercises available in the NeuroFlow app, which offers an in-depth library of behavioral health resources that users can explore at their own pace. Most of this content is assigned as part of treatment, but individuals on NeuroFlow are encouraged to explore the library and self-assign topics that resonate with their unique needs.
In this second part of our “Data Dive” series, we compiled the most watched and listened to self-assigned audio and video guides to discover what behavioral health topics individuals want to learn about the most. This engagement also helps us understand how they’re incorporating our high-touch, high-tech approach to integrated care on a daily basis to live healthier lives.
Most Popular Audio Content: Body Scan Meditations & Mindfulness
By far, the most popular resource in our audio library are the three different “body scan” exercises. In fact, these three guided meditations are so popular that each of the body scan exercises has more than twice the downloads of every other audio guide on this list.
In each body scan guide, individuals are taken through a 2 to 3-minute practice for mindfulness and relaxation where they are encouraged to notice each part of their body, recognize tension that may be there, and release it.
Here’s our most popular audio guide, “Seated Body Scan.”
Why Does it Matter?
The overwhelming popularity of this topic—body awareness and mindfulness—shows that individuals who use NeuroFlow don’t just want to learn about mindfulness and self-care. They want to make these tools and resources a regular part of their daily routines.
And that’s exactly what we see when we look at long-term engagement rates and the number of activities completed on our mobile app.
Industry-Leading Long-Term Behavioral Health Engagement
Over 50% of registered individuals engage with NeuroFlow’s behavioral health content during their second month on the platform. That’s nearly 10 times the industry average engagement rate for other behavioral health apps (6% engagement by month two). What’s more, 25% of people are still using NeuroFlow after six months.
When we break down engagement among that 25% of users at the six-month mark, we can see that this cohort is made up of super users who have made NeuroFlow a regular part of their lives. Of the individuals who still engage with NeuroFlow at six months, 50% have completed 10 or more activities.
Data like this shows that when individuals have access to quality behavioral health tools and evidence-based treatment options—like self-guided body scans—they participate in their care with daily behavioral health interventions over a sustained period of time. And that leads to healthier habits, better outcomes, lower medical costs, and higher likelihood to opt-in for treatment across the board.
Most Popular Video Content: Chronic Pain & Sleep
The content in NeuroFlow’s video library is more educational than our audio meditation guides, and usually a little longer, about 3 to 5-minutes for each exercise or video. But that different use case—education instead of interaction—helps to inform the most pressing behavioral health challenges individuals want to learn about and engage with.
Chronic pain & sleep-centered topics dominate the list of most viewed behavioral health videos, with information on specific topics like managing fibromyalgia pain near the top of the list. (Four of the top five videos are about pain management).
Stress and anxiety focused videos were the third most viewed health topics rounding out the top ten.
Why Does it Matter?
The most popular videos show that individuals are looking for in-depth answers that relate to their most important health questions, and in many cases that means finding a solution for chronic pain. It also highlights how people use different behavioral health tools (audio vs video) in different stages of their treatment or to learn about different conditions.
Videos seem to be more popular with individuals who want to learn about day-to-day problems that are having an immediate negative impact on their life, like poor sleep or chronic pain. While the most listened to audio content seems to align with long-term, habitual care and habit-building like mindfulness, resilience, and stress management, signaling adoption later in the patient treatment cycle.
There’s obviously still a lot to learn about how, when, and why individuals engage with certain types of behavioral health topics and different media. Which is why our clinical content team is constantly refining and expanding the available content in our app to best address every individual’s needs. NeuroFlow recently launched the Journey Gallery which features an expanded content library covering topics like grief, relationships, and anxiety that individuals can explore when they need additional support.
What the Most Popular Health Topics Tell Us About Our Population
As more individuals interact with ever-improving integrated care models and behavioral health tools, providers and payors can tailor support and educational resources to meet the most pressing needs of their populations wherever and whenever individuals want to access them. The data from self-selected research and the popularity of guides for specific topics shows that when given access to evidence-based information, individuals who use NeuroFlow seek out—and continue to use—effective tools and methods as part of their overall healthcare, often in collaboration with their care managers.
And as these tools continue to improve, that’s exciting news for individuals and care teams.
This is the second installment of a new data-driven blog series examining the latest trends in behavioral health. The first Data Dive explores CoCM patient outcomes and our upcoming post will cover NeuroFlow usage trends among different age demographics. Stay tuned!
