Brody Carinne, Star Alaina, Tran Jasmine
Public Health Program, Touro University California, Vallejo, CA, USA.
Mhealth. 2020 Oct 5;6:36. doi: 10.21037/mhealth-2019-di-13. eCollection 2020.
Chat-based hotlines use online messaging services or popular chat applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat, to connect users to trained health providers or staff. Chat-based hotlines can provide real-time communication between health providers and patients.
The evidence for chat-based hotlines for health promotion has not been reviewed systematically. Electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane Database, Google Scholar) were searched to identify English-language studies describing original research published from 2009 to 2020. This review was registered with Prospero Register of Systematic Reviews (ID: CRD42020156670).
Twelve publications met our criteria. Ten studies reported on user characteristics, eight on comparing use of chat-based hotlines with different modes of support, six on health outcomes and six on user satisfaction. Included studies report that chat-based hotlines have been used primarily for crisis and emotional support in high-income countries. Chat-based hotlines using instant messenger applications were preferred over other modes of services such as email, text messaging, voice calls, and face-to-face counselling. Evaluations of health outcomes, although limited in rigor due to mostly observational study designs, indicate mostly positive and statistically significant effects on mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, well-being and suicidality. User satisfaction with chat-based hotlines were moderately high.
Chat-based hotlines may be effective ways to deliver crisis support services in high income settings. They may have the potential to be effective in low- and middle-income countries to expand the reach of mental health and crisis support services although such services have not yet been publicly evaluated.
基于聊天的热线利用在线消息服务或流行的聊天应用程序（如WhatsApp、Facebook Messenger和微信），将用户与经过培训的健康服务提供者或工作人员联系起来。基于聊天的热线可以在健康服务提供者和患者之间提供实时沟通。
尚未对基于聊天的热线促进健康的证据进行系统综述。检索了电子数据库（PubMed、Cochrane数据库、谷歌学术），以识别描述2009年至2020年发表的原创研究的英文研究。本综述已在系统评价Prospero注册库注册（ID：CRD42020156670）。
12篇出版物符合我们的标准。10项研究报告了用户特征，8项研究比较了基于聊天的热线与不同支持模式的使用情况，6项研究涉及健康结果，6项研究涉及用户满意度。纳入的研究报告称，在高收入国家，基于聊天的热线主要用于危机和情感支持。与电子邮件、短信、语音通话和面对面咨询等其他服务模式相比，使用即时通讯应用程序的基于聊天的热线更受青睐。尽管由于大多是观察性研究设计，对健康结果的评估在严谨性上有限，但结果大多表明对焦虑、抑郁、幸福感和自杀倾向等心理健康结果有积极且具有统计学意义的影响。用户对基于聊天的热线的满意度中等偏高。
在高收入环境中，基于聊天的热线可能是提供危机支持服务的有效方式。它们可能有潜力在低收入和中等收入国家有效扩大心理健康和危机支持服务的覆盖范围，尽管此类服务尚未得到公开评估。
