Department of General Practice, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Australia.
School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.
JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2020 Jan 15;8(1):e13133. doi: 10.2196/13133.
Psychological distress among taxi drivers is 5 times higher than that in the general population, and more than half of all drivers have experienced 3 or more potentially traumatic events in their lifetime. Nevertheless, help-seeking for mental health problems in this male-dominated, predominately immigrant workforce is low. Mobile technologies have the potential to increase mental health awareness, teach self-help skills, and encourage help-seeking in this hard-to-reach population.
This study aimed to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of Driving to Health, a mobile phone-friendly mental health website app designed for people working as taxi drivers.
Drivers (n=46) were recruited from the Melbourne Airport Taxi Holding Yard to participate in a single-arm trial. Self-reported, paper-based assessments were completed at baseline and at 1 month. Feasibility was measured by completion rates, representativeness of study participants, and levels of use. Acceptability was assessed by measuring users' perception of the quality of the app and anticipated levels of future use. The efficacy of Driving to Health to increase awareness, self-help behaviors, and intentions to seek help was assessed using the user version of the Mobile App Rating Scale (uMARS) and the General Help-Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ). Psychological symptoms were measured using the short form of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Data were analyzed using complete case analysis.
In total, 42 participants comprising drivers from 10 different countries of origin, and 14 different languages, completed pre- and poststudy measures (42/46, 91% completion rate). Just under half (45%) of all users used the app more than once with an average visit of 4 min 8 seconds. Responding to the uMARS, 62% (26/42) of the participants said that they would recommend the app to many people. Nearly all (40/42, 95%) participants said that Driving to Health increased awareness of their own mental health; 86% (36/42) said that it increased their mental health knowledge; and 76% (32/42) said that it increased their self-help behaviors. Increases in help-seeking intentions on the GHSQ were not significant, and increases on all 3 scales of DASS-21 were not reliable or meaningful.
This study suggests that Driving to Health is an acceptable and feasible electronic health intervention for a hard-to-reach population. Our findings also suggest that Driving to Health results in increases in mental health awareness, behaviors, and willingness to seek help.
出租车司机的心理困扰是一般人群的 5 倍，超过一半的司机在一生中经历过 3 次或更多潜在的创伤事件。然而，在这个以男性为主、以移民为主的劳动力中，寻求心理健康问题的帮助的人数却很少。移动技术有可能提高心理健康意识，教授自助技能，并鼓励这个难以接触的人群寻求帮助。
本研究旨在评估专为出租车司机设计的一款手机友好型心理健康网站应用程序 Driving to Health 的可行性、可接受性和潜在疗效。
从墨尔本机场出租车停车场招募了 46 名司机参加单臂试验。参与者在基线和 1 个月时完成了自我报告的纸质评估。可行性通过完成率、研究参与者的代表性和使用水平来衡量。可接受性通过衡量用户对应用程序质量的感知和未来使用的预期水平来评估。使用移动应用程序评级量表（uMARS）和一般求助问卷（GHSQ）评估 Driving to Health 提高意识、自助行为和寻求帮助的意愿的效果。使用抑郁、焦虑和压力量表（DASS-21）的短版测量心理症状。使用完整病例分析对数据进行分析。
共有 42 名参与者完成了研究前和研究后的测量（42/46，91%的完成率），他们来自 10 个不同的原籍国，使用 14 种不同的语言。近一半（45%）的用户使用该应用程序超过一次，平均访问时间为 4 分 8 秒。在回答 uMARS 时，62%（26/42）的参与者表示会向很多人推荐该应用程序。几乎所有（40/42，95%）的参与者表示 Driving to Health 提高了他们对自己心理健康的认识；86%（36/42）表示它增加了他们的心理健康知识；76%（32/42）表示它增加了他们的自助行为。GHSQ 上的求助意愿增加不显著，DASS-21 的 3 个量表的增加都不可靠或没有意义。
本研究表明，Driving to Health 是一种对难以接触的人群可接受且可行的电子健康干预措施。我们的研究结果还表明，Driving to Health 导致心理健康意识、行为和寻求帮助的意愿增加。
