scholarly journals Supporting mental health during COVID-19 using a digital behaviour change intervention: an open-label, single-arm, pre-post intervention research study (Preprint)

10.2196/31273 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Summers ◽  
Philip Wu ◽  
Alisdair J G Taylor
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Summers ◽  
Philip Wu

BACKGROUND COVID-19 is taking its toll on people's mental health, particularly as people are advised to adhere to social distancing, self-isolation measures and government imposed national lockdowns. Digital health technologies have an important role to play in keeping people connected and supporting mental health and wellbeing. Particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as even before this unprecedented time, mental health and social services were already stretched. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to evaluate the 12-week outcomes of the digitally delivered Gro Health platform, a digital behaviour change intervention for self-management of mental wellbeing, sleep, activity, and nutrition. METHODS The study used a quasi-experimental research design consisting of an open-label, single-arm, pre-post intervention engagement using a convenience sample. From adults who had joined the intervention and had a complete baseline dataset (GAD-7 Anxiety Test Questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale, PHQ-9 Patient Health Questionnaire), we followed all users for 12 weeks (N=273), including 33 (12.1%) who reported a positive COVID-19 diagnosis during the study period. Users engagement with the Gro Health platform was tracked by active minutes. RESULTS Of the 347 study participants, 273 (78.67%) completed both baseline and follow up surveys. Change in scores for anxiety, perceived stress and depression was predicted by app engagement with the strongest effect being seen in change perceived stress scores F(1,271)=251.397, p<0.001, with an R2 of .479. CONCLUSIONS A digital behaviour change platform that provides remote mental wellbeing support can be effective in managing depression, anxiety, and perceived stress during times of crisis such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. CLINICALTRIAL Approved by Royal Holloway, University of London Ethics Board.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Summers ◽  
Philip Wu ◽  
Alisdair J G Taylor

BACKGROUND COVID-19 is taking its toll on people's mental health, particularly as people are advised to adhere to social distancing, self-isolation measures and government imposed national lockdowns. Digital health technologies have an important role to play in keeping people connected and supporting mental health and wellbeing. Particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as even before this unprecedented time, mental health and social services were already stretched. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to evaluate the 12-week outcomes of the digitally delivered Gro Health platform, a digital behaviour change intervention for self-management of mental wellbeing, sleep, activity, and nutrition. METHODS The study used a quasi-experimental research design consisting of an open-label, single-arm, pre-post intervention engagement using a convenience sample. From adults who had joined the intervention and had a complete baseline dataset (GAD-7 Anxiety Test Questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale, PHQ-9 Patient Health Questionnaire), we followed all users for 12 weeks (N=273), including 33 (12.1%) who reported a positive COVID-19 diagnosis during the study period. Users engagement with the Gro Health platform was tracked by active minutes. RESULTS Of the 347 study participants, 273 (78.67%) completed both baseline and follow up surveys. Change in scores for anxiety, perceived stress and depression was predicted by app engagement with the strongest effect being seen in change perceived stress scores F(1,271)=251.397, p<0.001, with an R2 of .479. CONCLUSIONS A digital behaviour change platform that provides remote mental wellbeing support can be effective in managing depression, anxiety, and perceived stress during times of crisis such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 607-616
Author(s):  
Claire Stewart ◽  
Emma Power ◽  
Annie McCluskey ◽  
Suzanne Kuys ◽  
Meryl Lovarini

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate a staff behaviour change intervention to increase the use of ward-based practice books and active practice by stroke inpatients. Design: This is a pre–post observational study. Setting: This study was conducted in a inpatient rehabilitation unit in Australia. Subjects: Stroke inpatients participated in the study. Intervention: A staff behaviour change intervention was designed to support staff to implement practice books. The intervention included staff training on motivation and coaching, and weekly audit and feedback for six months. The environment was restructured to bring staff together weekly at the bedside to review audit data and share skills. Main measures: Medical record audit and behavioural mapping were used to compare the number of stroke participants with/using a practice book pre- and post-intervention. Pre- and post-intervention, the percentage of observations where a stroke participant was actively practising, repetitions of practice recorded and type of supervision were compared. Results: A total of 24 participants were observed ( n = 12 pre, n = 12 post). Post-intervention, the number of participants with practice books increased from one to six (OR = 11, 95% CI = (0.9, 550.7)), but this change was not statistically significant ( P = 0.069). Five participants recorded repetitions in their practice books post-intervention, three were observed using practice books. There was no change in median repetitions recorded ( rpbs = 0.00, 95% CI = (−0.4, 0.4), P = 1.000) or observed active practice ( rpbs = –0.02, 95% CI = (−0.4, 0.4), P = 0.933). Active practice was often fully supervised by a therapist. Conclusion: A staff behaviour change intervention has the potential to increase the number of stroke survivors receiving ward-based practice books but did not increase active practice.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0248144
Author(s):  
Hunter Doughty ◽  
E. J. Milner-Gulland ◽  
Janice Ser Huay Lee ◽  
Kathryn Oliver ◽  
L. Roman Carrasco ◽  
...  

Interventions to shift the behaviour of consumers using unsustainable wildlife products are key to threatened species conservation. Whether these interventions are effective is largely unknown due to a dearth of detailed evaluations. We previously conducted a country-level online behaviour change intervention targeting consumers of the Critically Endangered saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) horn in Singapore. To evaluate intervention impact, we carried out in-person consumer surveys with >2,000 individuals pre- and post-intervention (2017 and 2019), and 93 in-person post-intervention surveys with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shopkeepers (2019). The proportion of self-reported high-usage saiga horn consumers in the target audience (Chinese Singaporean women aged 35–59) did not change significantly from pre- to post-intervention (24.4% versus 22.6%). However, post-intervention the target audience was significantly more likely than the non-target audience to accurately recall the intervention message and to report a decrease in saiga horn usage (4% versus 1% reported a behaviour change). Within the target audience, high-usage consumers were significantly more likely than lower-usage consumers to recall the message and report a behaviour change. Across respondents who reported a decrease in saiga horn usage, they cited the intervention message as a specific reason for their behaviour change significantly more than other reasons. Additionally, across all respondents, the belief that saiga is a common species in the wild decreased significantly from pre- to post-intervention. TCM shopkeepers, however, cited factors such as price and availability as the strongest influences on saiga horn sales. In sum, the intervention did significantly influence some consumers but the reduction of high-usage consumer frequency was not significant at the population level. We explore reasons for these findings, including competing consumer influences, characteristics of the intervention, and evaluation timing. This work suggests our intervention approach has potential, and exemplifies a multi-pronged in-person evaluation of an online wildlife trade consumer intervention.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hunter Doughty ◽  
Diogo Veríssimo ◽  
Janice Ser Huay Lee ◽  
L Roman Carrasco ◽  
Joss Wright ◽  
...  

Key Points: 1. A rare example of a wildlife trade initiative that covers all stages of an evidence-based behaviour change intervention. 2. Intervention development involved combining extensive consumer research with human behaviour theory and past research. 3. Intervention used a cutting-edge, powerful combination of online news coverage and targeted advertising. 4. Post-intervention, 4% of the target audience changed their behaviour (vs 1% of non-target) and the intervention message was shown as the key cause; but high-level users did not decrease significantly pre-to post-intervention.


2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-152
Author(s):  
Michelle F. Magee ◽  
Stacey I. Kaltman ◽  
Mihriye Mete ◽  
Carine M. Nassar

Purpose The primary aim of this pilot study was to examine the feasibility of codelivering a mental health intervention with an evidence-based type 2 diabetes (T2DM) boot camp care management program. The preliminary impact of participation on symptom scores for depression and anxiety and A1C was also examined. Methods This was a 12-week, non-randomized pilot intervention conducted with a convenience sample of adults with uncontrolled T2DM and moderate depression and/or anxiety at an urban teaching hospital. Co-management intervention delivery was via in-person and telehealth visits. Participants were assessed at baseline and 90 days. Results Participants (n = 18) were African American, majority female (83%), and age 50.7 ± 13.4 years. Significant improvements in mental health outcomes were demonstrated, as measured by a reduction in Patient Health Questionnaire − 9 scores of 2.4 ± 2.9 ( P = .01) and in Generalized Anxiety Disorder − 7 scores of 2.3 ± 1.9 ( P = .001). The pre-post intervention mean A1C improved by 3.4 ± 2.1 units from 12% ± 1.4% to 8.5% ± 1.7% ( P < .001). Conclusion The data generated in this pilot support the feasibility of delivering a diabetes and mental health co-management intervention using a combination of in-person and telemedicine visits to engage adults with T2DM and coexisting moderate depression and/or anxiety. Further research is warranted.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document