PUBLICATION
Advancing Mental Well-Being
Through Research
Our publications share research, clinical insights, and multidisciplinary perspectives that advance mental well-being, resilience, and healthy ageing across communities. Through evidence-based knowledge and collaboration, we aim to inspire learning, innovation, and meaningful community impact.
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Showing 98 results
- Cohort Studies
- MethodsX,
- 2024
LFC study: Protocol for a longitudinal follow-up cohort study on ageing and mental health in community-dwelling older adults in Singapore
- Lim, Z. H., Ng, T. K. S., Bao, Z., Yu, J., & Mahendran, R.
- DOI: 10.1016/j.mex.2024.102606
This paper describes a three-year follow-up study that adds brain scans and voice recordings to an earlier ageing and mental health project, to track long-term changes in thinking skills and mental health, and see how lasting the benefits of earlier interventions were.
- Digital Health
- JMIR Formative Research,
- 2024
AI-Led Mental Health Support (Wysa) for Health Care Workers During COVID-19: Service Evaluation
- Chang, C., Sinha, C., Roy, M., & Wong, J. C. M.
- DOI: 10.2196/51858
This study looked at how healthcare workers in a Singapore hospital used Wysa, an AI mental health chatbot, during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding good uptake, with most people using it more than once, and sleep and anxiety support the most popular features.
- Cognitive Decline
- Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring,
- 2024
Reversal of the concreteness effect can be detected in the natural speech of older adults with amnestic, but not non-amnestic, mild cognitive impairment
- Cao, L., Han, K., Lin, L., Hing, J., Ooi, V., Huang, N., Yu, J., Ng, T. K. S., Feng, L., Mahendran, R., Kua, E. H., & Bao, Z.
- DOI: 10.1002/dad2.12588
Analysing the natural speech of 148 English-speaking Singaporeans, this study found that people with a memory-focused form of mild cognitive impairment used fewer specific, concrete words than others — a pattern also seen in Alzheimer's disease — suggesting speech patterns could help spot early cognitive decline.
- Mental Health Literacy, Youth & Adolescent
- Clinical child psychology and psychiatry,
- 2024
Factors associated with informal and formal help-seeking among Asian adolescents with nonsuicidal self-injury
- Hiew, Y., Powell, N. L., Wong, Q. Y., Fong, Z. H., Fong, Y. J., & Chee, T. T
- DOI: 10.1177/13591045241241109
In a group of 121 Singaporean teenagers who self-harm without suicidal intent, this study found that those with more severe self-harm were more likely to seek help from friends or family, while having parents seen as more authoritative was linked to being less likely to seek this kind of informal help.
- Elderly Mental Health
- European Journal of Ageing,
- 2024
Psychometric properties of the World Health Organization WHOQOL-AGE Scale in Singapore
- Lee, R.Z.Y., Yang, W.F.Z., Mahendran, R. & Suárez, L.
- DOI: 10.1007/s10433-024-00803-3
This study tested a quality-of-life questionnaire (WHOQOL-AGE) on 593 older Singaporeans and found it to be a reliable tool, with results matching up well with related measures like life satisfaction and social connectedness.
- Mental Health Literacy, Youth & Adolescent
- Journal of Advanced Nursing,
- 2024
Effectiveness of educational interventions in reducing the stigma of healthcare professionals and healthcare students towards mental illness: A systematic review and meta-analysis
- Wong, J. C. M., Chua, J. Y. X., Chan, P. Y., & Shorey, S.
- DOI: 10.1111/jan.16127
Reviewing many trials, this study looked at whether training programmes actually reduce stigma toward people with mental illness among doctors, nurses, and healthcare students, pulling together evidence on how well this common approach works.
- Cohort Studies
- PloS one,
- 2024
Technology and physical activity for preventing cognitive and physical decline in older adults: Protocol of a pilot RCT
- Kiah Hui Siew, S., Yu, J., Teo, T. L., Chua, K. C., Mahendran, R., & Rawtaer, I
- DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0293340
This study protocol describes a trial testing whether a smartwatch with daily reminders can help older Singaporeans stay more physically active, compared with just wearing an activity tracker without reminders, and whether this helps protect their thinking skills and physical health.
- Cognitive Decline
- GeroScience,
- 2024
Cognitive and physical age gaps in relation to mild cognitive impairment and behavioral phenotypes
- Yu, J., Ng, T. K. S., & Mahendran, R.
- DOI: 10.1007/s11357-023-00864-9
This is a related paper further examining gaps between people's 'thinking age' and 'physical age' compared with their real age, and how these gaps relate to mild memory problems, building on the group's earlier work on this topic.
- Mental Health Literacy, Youth & Adolescent
- BMC Public Health,
- 2023
Association between psychological distress and mental help-seeking intentions in international students of national university of Singapore: a mediation analysis of mental health literacy
- Zeng, F., Wong, J. C. M., Qiao, D. & Sun, X.
- DOI: 10.1186/s12889-023-17346-4
This study of international students at the National University of Singapore found that students under more psychological stress were more likely to want to seek mental health help, and that better mental health knowledge helped explain this link.
- Hikikomori
- Frontiers in Psychiatry,
- 2023
Editorial: Hikikomori: an international perspective on assessment, treatment, and community intervention
- Lo, T. W., Wong, J. C. M., Chan, G. H., & Kato, T. A.
- DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1297898
This is an introduction to a special collection of papers on hikikomori (prolonged social withdrawal), looking at how it is assessed, treated, and addressed by communities in different countries.

