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A HOPE Online Community Peer Support Intervention for Help Seeking: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Dominic Arjuna Ugarte1, William G Cumberland1, Parvati Singh1
1Department of Emergency Medicine (Ugarte, Saadat, Young) and Department of Informatics (Singh, Young), University of California, Irvine, Irvine; Department of Biostatistics, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles (Cumberland); ElevateU, Irvine (Garett).
The Harnessing Online Peer Education (HOPE) intervention increased mental health help-seeking and online engagement among individuals with anxiety. While anxiety scores improved similarly in both groups, HOPE uniquely boosted resource requests and participation.
Area of Science:
- Mental Health
- Digital Health Interventions
- Social Media Research
Background:
- Anxiety disorders are prevalent, necessitating accessible interventions.
- Online peer education offers a scalable approach to mental health support.
- Limited research exists on the efficacy of social media-based peer interventions for anxiety.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the Harnessing Online Peer Education (HOPE) intervention's impact on anxiety.
- To assess the intervention's effect on help-seeking behaviors, specifically e-resource requests for anxiety reduction.
- To measure the intervention's influence on participants' online engagement.
Main Methods:
- A 6-week randomized controlled trial involving 300 participants with moderate to severe anxiety (GAD-7 scores ≥10).
- Participants were assigned to Facebook groups with or without peer leaders (HOPE intervention vs. control).
- Measurements included GAD-7 scores, e-resource requests, and online engagement at baseline and weeks 2, 4, and 6.
Main Results:
- Anxiety scores (GAD-7) improved in both intervention and control groups without significant differences.
- Participants in the HOPE intervention group showed significantly higher likelihoods of requesting e-resources (OR=10.27) and engaging online (OR=2.84).
Conclusions:
- The HOPE intervention is effective in promoting mental health help-seeking behaviors.
- Online peer education via social media can enhance user engagement in mental health support.
- HOPE demonstrates potential as a scalable digital mental health solution.
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