Faster Qualitative Analysis of Adolescent Mental Health

Evidano is an AI-powered qualitative data analysis platform that consolidates survey spreadsheets, interview audio, scoping-review PDFs, and NVivo exports to speed thematic analysis and reproducible reporting for school-based adolescent mental health studies. This post ties that workflow to a 16 July 2026 PLOS One Gauteng SBST protocol and a seven-step reproducible pipeline that preserves ethics, PII redaction and SPSS/NVivo interoperability.

• The PLOS One protocol (Published 16 July 2026) specifies ~6, 042 eligible learners, a survey sample of 440, 20 purposive SBST interviews, and a recruitment window June 2025–Mar 2026.
• Use a seven-step workflow to import data, auto-transcribe and redact, generate and lock a codebook, run cross-segment analysis, synthesise findings, and export reproducible methods and visuals for ethics and publication.
• Evidano supports AI transcription with custom dictionaries, optional PII redaction, reproducible codebooks, NVivo and SPSS export paths, and document chat for draft methods text.
• Pilot the workflow on 10–20 interviews to check code stability before scaling to the full SBST sample.

The protocol is a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design that runs a cross-sectional survey, a scoping review, in-depth SBST interviews, then a pilot pre-post quality-improvement intervention. The quantitative phase measures prevalence and drivers of depression, anxiety and trauma using validated instruments (PHQ-A, GAD-7, ITQ-CA, PEARLS), the scoping review synthesises 2015–2025 evidence, and the qualitative phase generates themes that directly inform intervention design.

• Quantitative phase, identifies prevalence and associated factors using SPSS v30, multivariable regression, ANOVA and cluster adjustments.
• Scoping review, synthesizes existing SBST and school-based interventions to provide contextual evidence for the pilot.
• Qualitative phase, conducts 20 SBST interviews analysed with Colaizzi’s seven-step framework and NVivo 15 to generate themes that feed intervention design.

Follow these seven steps to run a mixed-methods study like the Gauteng SBST protocol with AI support.

• 1) Collect and clean: import survey CSVs (PHQ-A, GAD-7, ITQ-CA responses) and upload audio interviews and PDFs.
• 2) Auto-transcribe and redact: run Evidano transcription with a custom school dictionary and automatic PII redaction for minors.
• 3) Rapid scoping-review triage: cluster and prioritise 2015–2025 hits from your database export by using AI to group titles and abstracts.
• 4) Automated coding pass: generate initial themes from SBST transcripts and review to lock a codebook (Co-coding mode).
• 5) Cross-segment analysis: run frequency and co-occurrence by school type, grade and sex, then export ANOVA-ready tables for SPSS if needed.
• 6) Synthesis: produce a narrative that triangulates survey prevalence, review evidence and SBST themes, include verbatim quotes linked to codes for audit trails.
• 7) Report and iterate: export visuals and a reproducible methods appendix for ethics boards, funders and publications.

The protocol includes parental consent, assent for minors, and on-site mental health supports, and any AI processing of sensitive interviews requires explicit consent and encrypted storage. Evidano supports PII redaction and private data retention policies, and these features complement research ethics but do not replace local IRB approvals.

• Research-only, outputs are for analysis and program design, not clinical diagnosis.

Adopt an AI-accelerated pipeline to cut coding time, standardise cross-segment comparisons, and keep a reproducible audit trail for ethics and publication if you are planning a school-based mixed-methods study or running the Gauteng SBST protocol. Try the seven-step workflow on a pilot batch of 10–20 interviews to validate code stability before scaling.

• Try the seven-step workflow on a pilot batch of 10–20 interviews to validate code stability before scaling.
• See the original protocol on PLOS One (Published 16 July 2026).

Ready to operationalise this pipeline? Try Evidano for free.