Scoping reviews on just-in-time adaptive interventions, micro randomized trials or ecological momentary interventions in the context of mental health
Method Stream: Literature Review
ECs: Only 14 EC (standard, no new/own data collection. Applicable in case of a clinical internship)
Description:
Mental disorders are widespread, imposing a significant burden on both individuals and society. Despite the high prevalence, there is a notable gap in treatment. Many individuals seeking help do not receive adequate care, mainly due to limited resources and availability of mental health services. One way to support people’s mental health is via Ecological Momentary Interventions (EMIs), facilitated through mobile devices. An emerging and sophisticated way of providing EMIs is via just-in-time-adaptive interventions (JITAIs). JITAIs are an innovative intervention design that aims to deliver tailored in-situ support in daily life via mobile devices, utilizing real-time monitoring and multimodal data sources to recommend whether and how to intervene. A novel research design related to JITAIs is the micro randomized trial. In this type of within-person experimental design, participants are repeatedly randomized to receiving an intervention or not. Mental health outcomes are then measures in close proximity to the presence (or absence) of an intervention, for example via ecological momentary assessment 30 minutes after a person received an intervention or not. Micro randomized trials can be used to optimize JITAIs to the individual by gaining information about which intervention should be provided in which moment and in which context.
EMIs and JITAIs are highly promising to advance the way we provide people with mental health support in their daily life. Micro randomized trials may support the construction of JITAIs that are effective and evidence-based. However, research on EMIs, JITAIs and the utilization of micro randomized trials in the context of mental health is still in its infancy and it remains unknown what the current state of the art on these topics. For this thesis assignment you will therefore conduct a scoping review on either EMIs, JITAIs, or micro randomized trial studies in the context of mental health. In total, three students can work on this assignment:
1. EMIs (e.g., what EMIs have been used in literature and can we maybe make recommendations for a ‘toolbox’ of EMIs that can be deployed in research and practical applications of EMIs/JITAIs?);
2. JITAIs (e.g., how have JITAIs been constructed or conceptualized and what are there effects?)
3. Micro randomized trial studies (e.g., what MRT studies have been conducted, what are their research questions, and what are the design and sample characteristics of these studies?)