University of Twente Student Theses
Investigating engagement with digital mental health interventions : do patients benefit from the interventions on Therapieland and what determines their success?
Hohendorf, L. (2023) Investigating engagement with digital mental health interventions : do patients benefit from the interventions on Therapieland and what determines their success?
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| Abstract: | Background: EHealth interventions are growing and they are said to be a promising way to effectively deliver treatment to patients in a non-traditional way. However, attrition rates are often high and adherence rates are low, which can limit their positive effects. One construct that has received more attention in the last decades regarding this issue, is engagement. Due to the lack of definition and the sometimes mixed literature, it is not entirely clear how engagement and efficacy are affected by other variables, like, for example, usage, age, professional contact, or peer contact. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to 1) investigate whether patients’ symptom scores decrease after working on the programme, 2) explore the relation between engagement and symptom scores, 3) examine the relation between initial usage, engagement, and symptom scores, 4) study the relation between age, engagement, and symptoms scores, and 5) inspect the relation between professional contact or peer contact, engagement, and symptom scores. Method: The participants of this study were real-world patients who either received blended care or only self-help content on the platforms Therapieland and Gezondeboel. The patients’ symptoms and engagement were assessed using the Panic Appraisal Inventory (PAI) and the TWente Engagement with Ehealth Technologies Scale (TWEETS). Additionally, log-data was gathered using the software Matomo. The data were analysed using Linear Mixed Models (LMM). Results: The analyses revealed a significant negative relationship between time and the anticipated panic and the panic consequences scores of the PAI. Next, it was found that higher engagement led to lower symptom scores over time and higher engagement was related to higher anticipation and consequences scores or vice versa. Age showed a significant negative relation to the consequences scale and seemed to moderate the relationship between engagement and the anticipation and consequences scores. Lastly, no significant relations were found between the log-data, professional contact, peer contact, and symptom scores or engagement. Conclusion: The results of this study support previous knowledge by showing that symptoms decreased after treatment and that more engagement led to lower symptom scores over time. Moreover, the insights support the need for more research to be able to fully understand these concepts and possibly enable the optimisation of eHealth technologies and aid treatment delivery. Keywords: EHealth, Engagement, Log-data, Age, Professional Contact, Peer Contact |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 02 science and culture in general |
| Programme: | Psychology MSc (66604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/94803 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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