Engagement and effect of digital mental health interventions
Method Stream: Other
ECs: Only 14 EC (standard, no or limited own data collection. Applicable in case of a clinical internship)
Description:
The Dutch mental health care system is under pressure. People with severe mental health issues often have to wait for a long time to start their treatment. Moreover, counsellors are looking for ways to further personalize their treatment, within, but also between the usual in-person, weekly sessions. eHealth technologies, like apps and online modules can play a role in reducing waiting lists and increasing personalization. However, there is room for improvement: often eHealth technologies do not reach their full potential.
Studies on adherence have recognised that just using an intervention is often not enough to benefit from it and that the reasons why people use an eHealth intervention, and their experiences with it, are more important. Engagement is proposed to be the concept that captures this. Although it is broadly recognised that engagement is not the same as usage, a shared understanding of the concept has not yet emerged. Reviews and position papers have voiced the need for a comprehensive definition and measure of engagement to be able to advance our understanding of the concept and its importance. In earlier studies, we have defined the concept and developed a measurement scale. However, we still have only a basic understanding of the concept, how it behaves over time, and its relationship to outcomes. Increasing this understanding is an important step in realizing the full potential of eHealth technologies.
In this assignment you will work on understanding engagement and its relation to outcomes in data from a RCT on the effectiveness of personalized vs non-personalized 2-week mobile wellbeing interventions, conducted among students of the UT. This datasets contains data on engagement and a range of other measures related to outcomes and usage of the intervention. Research questions and analyses will be based on your own interests and preferences.