Factors Predicting Trial Engagement, Treatment Satisfaction, and Health-Related Quality of Life During a Web-Based Treatment and Social Networking Trial for Binge Drinking and Depression in Young Adults: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial

The engagement problem: A review of engagement with digital mental health interventions and recommendations for a path forward

Purpose of the review

Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) are an effective and accessible means of addressing the unprecedented levels of mental illness worldwide. Currently, however, patient engagement with DMHIs in real-world settings is often insufficient to see clinical benefit. In order to realize the potential of DMHIs, there is a need to better understand what drives patient engagement.

Recent findings

We discuss takeaways from the existing literature related to patient engagement with DMHIs and highlight gaps to be addressed through further research. Findings suggest that engagement is influenced by patient-, intervention- and systems-level factors. At the patient-level, variables such as sex, education, personality traits, race, ethnicity, age and symptom severity appear to be associated with engagement. At the intervention-level, integrating human support, gamification, financial incentives and persuasive technology features may improve engagement. Finally, although systems-level factors have not been widely explored, the existing evidence suggests that achieving engagement will require addressing organizational and social barriers and drawing on the field of implementation science.

Summary

Future research clarifying the patient-, intervention- and systems-level factors that drive engagement will be essential. Additionally, to facilitate improved understanding of DMHI engagement, we propose the following: (a) widespread adoption of a minimum necessary 5-element engagement reporting framework; (b) broader application of alternative clinical trial designs; and (c) directed efforts to build upon an initial parsimonious conceptual model of DMHI engagement.

Seeking care where they can: A systematic review of global trends in online alcohol treatment utilization among non-veteran and veteran women

Background

Findings from a person-level meta-analysis of online alcohol intervention trials suggest that women disproportionately seek out such interventions (Riper et al., 2018). Although women may be a "hidden population" that is particularly drawn to online alcohol interventions, trial design features may explain women's apparent over-representation in these trials.

Methods

This systematic review examined associations between gender-tailored recruitment/inclusion criteria and proportions of women enrolled in online alcohol intervention trials, evaluated whether community samples have greater proportions of women than clinical samples, and compared country-specific average proportions of women in trials to country-specific proportions of women with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).

Results

Forty-four trials met inclusion/exclusion criteria, 34 community samples and 10 drawn from clinical settings; 4 studies included U.S. veterans and were examined separately. The average proportion of community-recruited women across the studies was 51.20% and the average proportion of clinically-recruited women was 35.81%, a difference that was statistically significant. Across the countries with relevant trials, the expected proportion of those with AUD who are women is 27.1% (World Population Review, 2022). Only 2 studies used targeted recruitment for women so no between-group tests were conducted. There was not a statistically significant difference in the proportion of women across trials that did and did not use gender-tailored alcohol inclusion criteria.

Conclusions

Results from this systematic review suggest that study design factors do not account for the marked over-representation of women in online alcohol interventions, indicating that women are indeed a "hidden population" whose needs should be understood and accommodated.

Engagement in Digital Mental Health Interventions: Can Monetary Incentives Help?

Digital mental health interventions (DMHI) are scalable and cost-effective strategies for increasing access to mental health care; however, dropout rates associated with digital interventions are high, particularly for open-access digital interventions. While some studies have focused on predictors of dropout from digital mental health programs, few studies have focused on engagement features that might improve engagement. In this perspective article, we discuss whether monetary incentives (MI) are one avenue to increasing user engagement in DMHI. We begin by reviewing the literature on the effects of MI for behavior change in health domains (e.g., dietary behaviors, substance use, and medication adherence). Then, drawing on a pilot study we conducted to test the effects of different levels of MI on usage and improvement in subjective well-being among users of a DMHI (Happify), we discuss the potential applications of MI for DMHI, the potential drawbacks of financial incentives in this context, and open questions for future research.