Apolinário-Hagen Jennifer, Fritsche Lara, Bierhals Cornelia, Salewski Christel
University of Hagen, Institute for Psychology, Department of Health Psychology, Germany.
Internet Interv. 2018 Jan 5;12:141-149. doi: 10.1016/j.invent.2017.12.002. eCollection 2018 Jun.
In recent years, effective Internet-delivered electronic (e-) mental health services have been developed to overcome the limited resources in face-to-face health care. For the successful dissemination of e-mental health services, individual predictors for their uptake and utilization need to be explored. For instance, little is known about the role of different information sources in attitudes toward Internet therapies. On the basis of technology acceptance framework, this pilot study aimed to identify differences in both attitudes and intentions to use e-mental health treatment services after providing psychoeducational information.
439 participants (mean age 33 years, = 10.6 years; 72% female) were randomly assigned to one of three text-based information groups (neutral text: = 111; expert evaluation: = 108; user evaluation: = 112) or a control condition (no information: = 108). We assessed attitudes toward e-mental health treatments using a 15-item German e-therapy attitudes measure.
Descriptive analyses revealed overall neutral attitudes toward Internet therapies. Ambivalent perceptions were found in terms of Perceived Usefulness (positive attitude) and Relative Advantage (negative attitude). The awareness of Internet therapies was rather low. Most participants evaluated self-help books, health websites and face-to-face counselling as more useful than web-based counselling and therapies and reported higher intentions to use conventional services in case of emotional problems. As hypothesized, variance analyses demonstrated that text-based information, especially expert evaluations, were associated with significantly more positive attitudes toward e-mental health treatment services compared to the control condition.
Taken together, this pilot study suggested a positive connection between the provision of general facts about e-mental health treatment services and attitudes as well as behavioral intentions to future use such services. However, a limitation was the omission of baseline attitudes assessment. Thus, further research is needed to gain deeper insights into the impact of information on attitudes.
近年来，为克服面对面医疗保健资源有限的问题，已开发出有效的互联网电子心理健康服务。为了成功推广电子心理健康服务，需要探索影响其接受和使用的个体预测因素。例如，对于不同信息来源在对待互联网疗法态度方面的作用知之甚少。基于技术接受框架，本试点研究旨在确定在提供心理教育信息后，使用电子心理健康治疗服务的态度和意图的差异。
439名参与者（平均年龄33岁，标准差=10.6岁；72%为女性）被随机分配到三个基于文本的信息组之一（中性文本组：n=111；专家评估组：n=108；用户评估组：n=112）或一个对照组（无信息组：n=108）。我们使用一份包含15个条目的德国电子疗法态度量表评估对电子心理健康治疗的态度。
描述性分析显示对互联网疗法总体态度中立。在感知有用性（积极态度）和相对优势（消极态度）方面存在矛盾的看法。对互联网疗法的认知度相当低。大多数参与者认为自助书籍、健康网站和面对面咨询比网络咨询和疗法更有用，并表示在遇到情绪问题时更倾向于使用传统服务。如假设的那样，方差分析表明，与对照组相比，基于文本的信息，尤其是专家评估，与对电子心理健康治疗服务的更积极态度相关。
总体而言，本试点研究表明，提供有关电子心理健康治疗服务的一般信息与对未来使用此类服务的态度及行为意图之间存在积极联系。然而，一个局限性是遗漏了基线态度评估。因此，需要进一步研究以更深入了解信息对态度的影响。
