Practical and Emotional Problems Reported by Users of a Self-guided Digital Problem-solving Intervention During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content Analysis

Abstract

Background: To better direct assessments and interventions toward the general population during both the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and future crises with societal restrictions, data on the types of practical and emotional problems that people are experiencing are needed.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the types of practical and emotional problems that the general population is experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic and to construct an empirically derived inventory based on the findings.

Methods: A total of 396 participants, recruited among members of the general public in Sweden who were experiencing practical and/or emotional problems during the pandemic, accessed a self-guided digital problem-solving intervention for a period of 1 week to report and solve the problems they experienced. Prior to accessing the intervention, the participants completed a short self-assessment regarding symptoms of depression and anxiety. Content analysis was used to account for the types of problems participants reported. A set of items for an inventory was later proposed based on the problem categories derived from the analysis.

Results: A majority of participants had clinically relevant symptoms of either depression or anxiety. The problems reported were categorized as 13 distinct types of problems. The most common problem was difficulty managing daily activities. Based on the categories, a 13-item inventory was proposed.

Conclusions: The 13 types of problems, and the proposed inventory, could be valuable when composing assessments and interventions for the general population during the ongoing pandemic or similar crises with societal restrictions. The most common problem was of a practical nature, indicating the importance of including examples of such problems within assessments and interventions.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04677270; https://ichgcp.net/clinical-trials-registry/NCT04677270.

Keywords: COVID-19; anxiety; content analysis; depression; digital intervention; mental health; pandemic; problem-solving; public health; self-guided intervention.

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: BL is a shareholder of DahliaQomit AB, a company specializing in online psychiatric symptom assessment, and Hedman-Lagerlöf och Ljótsson psykologi AB, a company that licenses cognitive behavior therapy manuals. AH, EF, and MK do not have any competing interests.

©Amira Hentati, Erik Forsell, Brjánn Ljótsson, Martin Kraepelien. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 04.10.2021.

Figures

Figure 1

Flowchart of the selection of study participants.