Effectiveness and Lessons Learned From an Occupational E-Mental Health Intervention for Enhancing Workplace Mental...

Area of Science:

• Occupational health
• Digital health
• Mental health interventions

Background:

• Occupational e-mental health (OeMH) interventions aim to prevent mental health issues and improve work performance.
• Robust assessments are crucial to validate the effectiveness of OeMH interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the EMPOWER multimodal e-mental health intervention.
• To assess impacts on presenteeism, depression, anxiety, and stress in a workplace setting.

Main Methods:

• A 7-week cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) involving SMEs and public agencies across Europe.
• Intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol analyses were conducted using linear mixed models.
• Outcomes included presenteeism, depression, anxiety, and stress, measured at baseline, post-intervention, and 21-week follow-up.

Main Results:

• The ITT analysis revealed no statistically significant short-term or long-term effects of the EMPOWER intervention on presenteeism or secondary outcomes.
• Subgroup analyses indicated significant differences based on age, gender, and baseline psychological symptoms.
• Per-protocol analysis showed no significant differences between engaged and non-engaged participants; low adherence was noted.

Conclusions:

• The large-scale RCT found no overall effectiveness for the EMPOWER OeMH intervention in workplace settings.
• Methodological and implementation challenges, including technical issues and low adherence, were identified.
• Future OeMH interventions require enhanced feasibility, organizational readiness, user engagement, and pragmatic evaluation approaches.