Do people residing in low socioeconomic areas engage with and benefit from digital mental health services?

IF 4.1 2区 医学 Q1 HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES
Lauren G Staples, Blake F Dear, Olav Nielssen, Nickolai Titov
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: People who are socioeconomically disadvantaged have higher rates of mental disorder and are more likely to face barriers to evidence-based psychological services. Barriers include the cost of treatment, limited availability of local services, and the burden of psychosocial difficulties. Psychological treatment delivered via the internet can overcome some of these barriers.

Methods: This study was a retrospective analysis of data collected from 21,561 patients accessing online psychological assessment and treatment. Residential postcodes were used to assign patients to a socioeconomic group (low, mid, or high SES), based on the Index of Economic Resources published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Results: The low SES group comprised 34.1 % of the sample and the mid SES group comprised 35.7 %. A perceived lack of local or affordable mental health services was the main reason given for accessing online mental health assessment and treatment. There were small but significant demographic differences between groups at assessment, and baseline symptoms of depression and anxiety were slightly higher for the low and mid SES groups. Despite these differences, there were no group differences in treatment outcomes. All groups showed large symptom reductions on measures of depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7), with Cohen's d effect sizes between 1.36 and 1.47. Reliable deterioration rates were low, and satisfaction rates were high.

Conclusion: This study shows that people residing in low socioeconomic areas engage with and benefit from digital mental health services. Results suggest that scalable digital psychological services can improve the equity of access to mental health care.

居住在低社会经济地区的人们是否参与并受益于数字心理健康服务?
背景:处于社会经济不利地位的人有更高的精神障碍率,更有可能面临循证心理服务的障碍。障碍包括治疗费用、当地服务有限以及心理社会困难的负担。通过互联网提供的心理治疗可以克服其中的一些障碍。方法:本研究回顾性分析了21561例接受在线心理评估和治疗的患者的数据。根据澳大利亚统计局公布的经济资源指数,使用居民邮政编码将患者分配到社会经济群体(低、中、高SES)。结果:低经济地位组占34.1%,中等经济地位组占35.7%。人们认为缺乏当地或负担得起的心理健康服务是获得在线心理健康评估和治疗的主要原因。在评估时,两组之间的人口统计学差异很小但很重要,低、中等经济地位组的抑郁和焦虑基线症状略高。尽管存在这些差异,但治疗结果没有组间差异。所有组在抑郁(PHQ-9)和焦虑(GAD-7)方面都表现出明显的症状减轻,科恩效应值在1.36到1.47之间。可靠的恶化率很低,满意度很高。结论:本研究表明,生活在低社会经济地区的人们参与并受益于数字心理健康服务。结果表明,可扩展的数字心理服务可以提高获得精神卫生保健的公平性。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
6.50
自引率
9.30%
发文量
94
审稿时长
6 weeks
期刊介绍: Official Journal of the European Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ESRII) and the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII). The aim of Internet Interventions is to publish scientific, peer-reviewed, high-impact research on Internet interventions and related areas. Internet Interventions welcomes papers on the following subjects: • Intervention studies targeting the promotion of mental health and featuring the Internet and/or technologies using the Internet as an underlying technology, e.g. computers, smartphone devices, tablets, sensors • Implementation and dissemination of Internet interventions • Integration of Internet interventions into existing systems of care • Descriptions of development and deployment infrastructures • Internet intervention methodology and theory papers • Internet-based epidemiology • Descriptions of new Internet-based technologies and experiments with clinical applications • Economics of internet interventions (cost-effectiveness) • Health care policy and Internet interventions • The role of culture in Internet intervention • Internet psychometrics • Ethical issues pertaining to Internet interventions and measurements • Human-computer interaction and usability research with clinical implications • Systematic reviews and meta-analysis on Internet interventions
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