Transforming guided internet interventions into simplified and self-guided digital tools - Experiences from three...

Area of Science:

• Digital health
• Psychological interventions
• Self-care technologies

Background:

• Therapist-guided internet interventions are effective but resource-intensive.
• Unguided interventions may offer comparable efficacy, reducing clinician burden.
• Digital psychological self-care, a structured approach using digital tools, is explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present the concept of digital psychological self-care.
• To develop and evaluate new self-guided digital interventions for insomnia, alcohol use, and eczema.
• To compare these new interventions with existing therapist-guided approaches.

Main Methods:

• Developed three digital self-care interventions: sleep diary for insomnia, alcohol diary for problematic alcohol use, and exposure/mindfulness for eczema.
• Compared new digital self-care interventions to their therapist-guided counterparts using published feasibility and randomized trial data.
• Analyzed content type, duration, reading material length, and within-group effect sizes.

Main Results:

• Digital self-care interventions significantly reduced clinician time and participant reading requirements.
• Within-group effect sizes and response rates were comparable to more comprehensive guided internet interventions.
• Preliminary findings indicate viability of self-guided digital tools as alternatives.

Conclusions:

• Guided internet interventions can be successfully adapted into self-guided digital tools.
• Digital psychological self-care, supported by initial and final telephone interviews, offers a viable alternative to guided interventions.
• Further research, including randomized controlled trials, is necessary to confirm efficacy and identify patient suitability for different intervention types.