Mental Health Help-seeking Promotion in Older Adults
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Descriptive social norm nudges, Pictorial social norm nudges, Service as usual.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Mental Health Help-seeking. Basic parameters: from 60 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Hong Kong
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Official title
Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words: A Participatory Approach to Codesign Descriptive and Pictorial Social Norm Nudges and a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) to Examine Their Effectiveness in Improving Mental Health Help-seeking Intention
Overview
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.
Detailed description
This study is a three-arm randomised controlled trial (RCT) in 540 older adults aged 60 years and above recruited through NGOs, testing the utility of revised TPB with baseline data, and the effectiveness of descriptive social norm-nudges (intervention group 1) and pictorial social norm- nudges (intervention group 2) comparing to traditional mental health education (control). Participants will be evenly randomised and receive 1 message/picture per day consecutively for 2 weeks. Researchers blind to group allocation will interview participants at baseline (T0), 2 weeks (post-intervention, T1), and 12 weeks (follow-up, T2). The primary outcomes are changes in subjective norms and help-seeking intention assessed using a revised Chinese version of the theory of planned behaviour questionnaire (C-TPB); secondary outcomes include perceived behavioural control, help-seeking attitude, perceived barriers to help-seeking (C-TPB subscales), and mental health assessed by PHQ-9, GAD-7 and UCLA-3.
Interventions
- Behavioral Descriptive social norm nudges
A set of messages with descriptive social norm nudges sent to participants. - Behavioral Pictorial social norm nudges
A set of messages with pictorial social norm nudges sent to participants. - Behavioral Service as usual
Traditional mental health education information disseminated to participants.
Primary outcome measures
- Subjective norms toward mental health help-seeking [Time frame: Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)]
- Mental health help-seeking intention [Time frame: Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)]
Secondary outcome measures (6)
- Perceived behavioural control [Time frame: Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)]
- Help-seeking attitude [Time frame: Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)]
- Perceived barriers to help-seeking [Time frame: Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)]
- Depressive symptoms [Time frame: Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)]
- Anxiety symptoms [Time frame: Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)]
- Loneliness [Time frame: Baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1, two weeks after T0), and to 12 weeks after the baseline (T2)]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- 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
- have a smartphone with an instant communication application to receive text and images
Exclusion criteria
- have severe difficulty in reading and communication
- show imminent suicidal risk at any stage of the study
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Model
- Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
Study locations
Hong Kong · 1 center
- The Hong Kong Polytechnic University — Hong Kong
Identifiers
NCT: NCT06707935 · HSEARS20231109001