Mental health awareness in Malaysia has been on the rise, especially among university students.

The
data from NHMS 2015 conducted by the Ministry of Health Malaysia recorded an increasing trend of
mental health problems among adults, of age 16 years and above in Malaysia from the year 1996
(10.7%) to 2015 (29.2%). Furthermore, the changes in the learning environment due to COVID-19
pandemic caused an increase in burden on their mental health. Hence, this study is done with the
objectives of determining the state of mental health as well as the effectiveness of the text based
mental health coaching application in improving students’ mental well being and their experiences.
A total number of 118 students from International Medical University were assessed using DASS-21,
Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) and Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) to screen for mental health well
being. The result showed the prevalence of moderate to extremely severe depression is 33.9%
(n=40), anxiety is 30.51%(n=36), and stress is 19.49%(n=23) in 118 healthcare students that
participated. Meanwhile, the majority of the students from both control and intervention groups
(n=40) scored slightly satisfied in Satisfaction With Life Score and normal resilience (n=82) for Brief
Resilience Scale. There seemed to be no significant association between different ethnicity, course of
study, family income and relationship status. However, there is a significant relation between age
groups in stress scores.