Project Details
Projekt
Needs and preferences regarding information strategies on e-mental health interventions among healthcare professionals: a mixed-methods study involving a discrete choice experiment
Subject Area
Public Health, Healthcare Research, Social and Occupational Medicine
Term
since 2023
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 528399867
There is a remarkable discrepancy between the prevalence of mental disorders and the marginal uptake rates of evidence-based e-mental health interventions as additional prevention and treatment options. Since fall 2020, physicians and psychotherapists can prescribe certain digital health applications (German DiGA) on the expense of statutory health insurance companies, but still many professionals feel not well informed about these innovations. However, it remains unclear which information is most important for them and how exactly the information should be provided given the countless option for information strategies (e.g. attributes like content, format, media or commutation channel, sources, etc.). Hence, this issue calls for basic research aiming at understanding complex information needs and preferences regarding e-mental health interventions among healthcare professionals as key multipliers for their adoption in the general population. Our focus on information strategies for healthcare professionals as trusted health information source for patients and promoting the informed use of e-mental health interventions requires a context-sensitive inquiry involving both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Prospectively, the results of the proposed investigation could help develop tailored information strategies on digital health tools, which will be investigated with a mixed-methods research approach with a stated preferences survey (i.e. discrete-choice-experiment: DCE). The aims of the study are: (1) To explore information needs regarding e-mental health interventions, and to identify potentially important features (attributes varying in levels) of information strategies among healthcare professionals in Germany for the preference assessment (formative qualitative research). (2) To select attributes varying in levels and to derive assumptions on potential designs of information strategies on e-mental health interventions (conceptual development). (3) To construct and pretest choice tasks mimicking real-world information strategies using participatory approaches (methodological development). (4) To conduct a DCE in order to evaluate information preferences regarding e-mental health interventions in healthcare professionals (quantitative main study). Outcomes include information strategy choice (composed of attributes and levels) and the relative importance (trade-offs) as well as the identification of latent classes of healthcare professionals based on shared preferences. In addition, we aim to derive recommendations for information strategies as basis for an action guideline in order to increase the practical value with respect to effective implementation strategies.
DFG Programme
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