Evaluation of a Website to Improve Depression Literacy in Adoldescents

July 26, 2022 updated by: Ellen Greimel, Ludwig-Maximilians - University of Munich

Evaluating the Efficacy and the Acceptability of the Website "Ich Bin Alles" to Improve Depression Literacy in Adolescents

The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and acceptability of the website "ich bin alles" (https://www.ich-bin-alles.de/) to improve depression literacy (knowledge about depression, which aid the recognition, treatment or prevention of depression) in healthy adolescents. The investigators will examine whether the website improves depression literacy in healthy adolescents aged 12 to 18 years. The investigators will also assess the acceptability of the website among adolescents.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Few young people with major depressive disorder seek professional treatment in time. Concerns about social stigma, confidentiality, and limited knowledge about mental health conditions, such as depression, or mental health services are some of the main barriers to seek treatment. To address these problems, we developed an evidence-based website "ich bin alles" (https://www.ich-bin-alles.de/) to improve depression literacy.

To improve depression literacy, the website provides general information about depression as psychiatric disorder in adolescents (e.g., symptoms, causes, course and treatment of depression). Furthermore, the website provides information about self-help strategies for depression and prevention of depression; i.e., strategies for promoting mental health (e.g., reducing stress, doing exercise, undertaking positive activities), which are meant to serve as an addition to professional treatments of depression or to promote mental health in adolescents.

Target groups of the website are adolescents aged 12 to 18 years seeking help for depression, as well as healthy adolescents seeking information about mental health promotion or depression. Easy access to information about depression would make early recognition of depression more likely and engage young people to seek help for depression.

Since the website targets two different groups, the investigators will evaluate the website accordingly:

Target group 1: Adolescents with a major depressive disorder (acute or remitted) Target group 2: Healthy Adolescents (no mental health condition) The current study will focus on target group 2. A study focusing on target group 1 can be found in a separately registered clinical trial on clinicaltrials.gov.

The primary aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and acceptability of the website "ich bin alles" (https://www.ich-bin-alles.de/) to improve depression literacy in healthy adolescents.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

79

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Germany
    • Bayern
      • Munich, Bayern, Germany, 80336
        • Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Munich

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

12 years to 18 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

- Intelligence quotient (IQ) of ≥ 80

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Current diagnosis of a mental disorder
  • Remitted depressive disorder
  • Insufficient knowledge of German

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention Group 2 - General information about depression
Exposure to general information about depression
Other: General information about depression

Before starting the intervention, the participants are told that they will be shown parts of a website about depression. The participants are instructed to carefully attend to the website (e.g., to read the text precisely, to hear attentively to the podcasts and to view carefully the videos and images on the website). The time window spent for the reception of each part of the website are fixed.

The participants in this intervention group will only be shown parts of the website regarding general information about depression
Experimental: Intervention Group 1 - Strategies for promoting mental health
Exposure to information about strategies for promoting mental health
Other: Strategies for promoting mental health

Before starting the intervention, the participants are told that they will be shown parts of a website about depression. The participants are instructed to carefully attend to the website (e.g., to read the text precisely, to hear attentively to the podcasts and images on the website). The time window spent for the reception of each part of the website are fixed.

The participants in this intervention group will only be shown parts of the website regarding strategies for promoting mental health

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Depression Literacy - Depression as psychiatric disorder
Time Frame: Pre-Test, Post-Test (within 2 hours), Follow-Up 1 (Week 2), Follow-Up 2 (Week 4)
This self-designed questionnaire is a self-report inventory to assess knowledge of depression as psychiatric disorder (frequency and comorbidities, treatment, symptoms, causes and course of depression; 27 items), with higher scores indicating more knowledge of depression as psychiatric disorder. Participants will complete this self-designed questionnaire at pre-test, post-test and the two follow-ups to determine change in knowledge of depression as psychiatric disorder
Pre-Test, Post-Test (within 2 hours), Follow-Up 1 (Week 2), Follow-Up 2 (Week 4)
Depression Literacy - Strategies for promoting mental health
Time Frame: Pre-Test, Post-Test (within 2 hours), Follow-Up 1 (Week 2), Follow-Up 2 (Week 4)
This self-designed questionnaire is a self-report inventory to assess knowledge of strategies for promoting mental health (exercise, dealing with problems and stress, positive attitude, postive activities and social contacts; 27 items), with higher scores indicating more knowledge of strategies for promoting mental health. Participants will complete this self-designed questionnaire at pre-test, post-test and the two follow-ups to determine change in knowledge of strategies for promoting mental health.
Pre-Test, Post-Test (within 2 hours), Follow-Up 1 (Week 2), Follow-Up 2 (Week 4)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Visual Aesthetics of Websites Inventory Short Version (VisAWI-S)
Time Frame: Post-Test (within 2 hours)
The short version of the Visual Aesthetics of Websites Inventory (VisAWI-S) is self-report inventory to assess the evaluation of the website's design - especially the perceived visual aesthetics. Participants indicated their response to the four items (e.g., "The layout appears professionally designed") on a seven-point Likert scale (ranging from 1 "do not agree at all" to 7 "do fully agree")
Post-Test (within 2 hours)
Overall reception of the website
Time Frame: Post-Test (within 2 hours)
The overall reception of the website as measured with a self-designed questionnaire
Post-Test (within 2 hours)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Ludwig-Maximilians - University of Munich

Collaborators

Prof. OTTO Beisheim Stiftung (Germany)

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 4, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 2, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

May 2, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 10, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 18, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

March 29, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 27, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 26, 2022

Last Verified

July 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 20115_2

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

IPD Plan Description

Data in our study contains sensitive patient information, such as sociodemographic information and comorbidities. Since patients could possibly be identified by making our raw data publicly available, ethical principles of protecting patient confidentiality would be breached. Aggregated group data can be made available upon request.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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