Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Differences Between Online Trial Participants Who Have Used Statutory Mental Health Services and Those Who Have Not: Analysis of Baseline Data From 2 Pragmatic Trials of a Digital Health Intervention.

Rennick-Egglestone, Stefan; Newby, Chris; Robinson, Clare; Yeo, Caroline; Ng, Fiona; Elliott, Rachel; Ali, Yasmin; Llewellyn-Beardsley, Joy; Pomberth, Scott; Harrison, Julian; Gavan, Sean P; Cuijpers, Pim; Priebe, Stefan; Hall, Charlotte L.; Slade, Mike

Differences Between Online Trial Participants Who Have Used Statutory Mental Health Services and Those Who Have Not: Analysis of Baseline Data From 2 Pragmatic Trials of a Digital Health Intervention. Thumbnail


Authors

CHRISTOPHER NEWBY Christopher.Newby@nottingham.ac.uk
Senior Quantitative Methods Adviser and Researcher

Clare Robinson

Profile image of FIONA NG

DR FIONA NG FIONA.NG@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Principal Research Fellow

Rachel Elliott

Yasmin Ali

Joy Llewellyn-Beardsley

Scott Pomberth

Julian Harrison

Sean P Gavan

Pim Cuijpers

Stefan Priebe

MIKE SLADE M.SLADE@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Mental Health Recovery and Social Inclusion



Abstract

Background: Digital health interventions (DHIs) are an established element of mental health service provision internationally. Regulators have positioned the best practice standard of evidence as an interventional study with a comparator reflective of standard care, often operationalized as a pragmatic trial. DHIs can extend health provision to those not currently using mental health services. Hence, for external validity, trials might openly recruit a mixture of people who have used mental health services and people who have not. Prior research has demonstrated phenomenological differences in mental health experience between these groups. Some differences between service users and nonservice users might influence the change created by DHIs; hence, research should systematically examine these differences to inform intervention development and evaluation work. This paper analyzes baseline data collected in the NEON (Narrative Experiences Online; ie, for people with experience of psychosis) and NEON-O (NEON for other [eg, nonpsychosis] mental health problems) trials. These were pragmatic trials of a DHI that openly recruited people who had used specialist mental health services and those who had not. All participants were experiencing mental health distress. NEON Trial participants had experienced psychosis in the previous 5 years. Objective: This study aims to identify differences in baseline sociodemographic and clinical characteristics associated with specialist mental health service use for NEON Trial and NEON-O Trial participants. Methods: For both trials, hypothesis testing was used to compare baseline sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of participants in the intention-to-treat sample who had used specialist mental health services and those who had not. Bonferroni correction was applied to significance thresholds to account for multiple testing. Results: Significant differences in characteristics were identified in both trials. Compared with nonservice users (124/739, 16.8%), NEON Trial specialist service users (609/739, 82.4%) were more likely to be female (P<.001), older (P<.001), and White British (P<.001), with lower quality of life (P<.001) and lower health status (P=.002). There were differences in geographical distribution (P<.001), employment (P<.001; more unemployment), current mental health problems (P<.001; more psychosis and personality disorders), and recovery status (P<.001; more recovered). Current service users were more likely to be experiencing psychosis than prior service users. Compared with nonservice users (399/1023, 39%), NEON-O Trial specialist service users (614/1023, 60.02%) had differences in employment (P<.001; more unemployment) and current mental health problems (P<.001; more personality disorders), with lower quality of life (P<.001), more distress (P<.001), less hope (P<.001), less empowerment (P<.001), less meaning in life (P<.001), and lower health status (P<.001). Conclusions: Mental health service use history was associated with numerous differences in baseline characteristics. Investigators should account for service use in work to develop and evaluate interventions for populations with mixed service use histories.

Citation

Rennick-Egglestone, S., Newby, C., Robinson, C., Yeo, C., Ng, F., Elliott, R., Ali, Y., Llewellyn-Beardsley, J., Pomberth, S., Harrison, J., Gavan, S. P., Cuijpers, P., Priebe, S., Hall, C. L., & Slade, M. (2023). Differences Between Online Trial Participants Who Have Used Statutory Mental Health Services and Those Who Have Not: Analysis of Baseline Data From 2 Pragmatic Trials of a Digital Health Intervention. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25, Article e44687. https://doi.org/10.2196/44687

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 27, 2023
Online Publication Date Jun 27, 2023
Publication Date Jun 27, 2023
Deposit Date Mar 1, 2023
Publicly Available Date Jun 27, 2023
Journal Journal of Medical Internet Research
Electronic ISSN 1438-8871
Publisher JMIR Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 25
Article Number e44687
DOI https://doi.org/10.2196/44687
Keywords Health Informatics
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/17939337
Publisher URL https://www.jmir.org/2023/1/e44687

Files





You might also like



Downloadable Citations