Mental Health Help-seeking Promotion in Older Adults
ConditionMental Health Help-seeking
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age60+
SponsorThe Hong Kong Polytechnic University
About this trial
The present study aims to examine the effectiveness of descriptive social norm nudges and pictorial social norm nudges in improving mental health help-seeking intention compared to educational information.
Eligibility criteria
This trial accepts healthy volunteersQualifiers
aged 60 years or above at the time of the baseline assessment
have no severe mental disorder or cognitive impairment
have no severe visual impairment
be able to read Chinese
Disqualifiers
have severe difficulty in reading and communication
show imminent suicidal risk at any stage of the study
Trial design
Design model
Parallel
Treatments tested in this trial
Descriptive social norm nudges
BehavioralA set of messages with descriptive social norm nudges sent to participants.
Pictorial social norm nudges
BehavioralA set of messages with pictorial social norm nudges sent to participants.
Service as usual
BehavioralTraditional mental health education information disseminated to participants.
Treatment groups
540 Participants
are divided into 3 treatment groupsGroup A: Descriptive social norm nudgesExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: Pictorial social norm nudgesExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group C: Active controlActive comparator 1 intervention
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Subjective norms toward mental health help-seeking
Subjective norms toward mental health help-seeking will be measured by six items adapted from the validated Chinese version of the TPB questionnaire (C-TPB) . The three items will measure descriptive norms describing what society, in general, does when facing mental health challenges, and the other three items will measure social norms describing what the significant others of the participant would do. Responses will be rated on a 6-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating higher levels of subjective norms about mental health help-seeking.
Time frame
Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)2
Mental health help-seeking intention
Mental health help-seeking intention will be measured on a 3-item subscale of C-TPB. Responses will be rated on a 6-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating higher levels of help-seeking intention.
Time frame
Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)Secondary outcomes
1
Perceived behavioural control
Perceived behavioural control will be measured on a 3-item subscale of the C-TPB. Responses are rated on a 6-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating higher levels of behavioural control.
Time frame
Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)2
Help-seeking attitude
Help-seeking attitude will be measured on a 5-item subscale of C-TPB, items will be measured on a 6-point semantic differential scale, with higher scores indicating a more positive attitude towards help-seeking.
Time frame
Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)3
Perceived barriers to help-seeking
Perceived barriers to help-seeking will be measured by a 6-item scale adapted from the Chinese American Psychiatric Epidemiological study (CAPES), responses are rated on a 6-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating more significant perceived barriers to help-seeking.
Time frame
Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)4
Depressive symptoms
Depressive symptoms will be measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). It is a 9-item instrument that incorporates depression diagnostic criteria with other leading major depressive symptoms and rates the frequency of the symptoms, factoring into the scoring severity index. PHQ-9 scores of 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20 and above represent mild, moderate, moderately severe, and severe depression, respectively.
Time frame
Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)Sponsors and contacts
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Lead sponsor
The University of Hong Kong
Collaborator
Source ClinicalTrials.gov