Effectiveness of a Smartphone-Based Stress Management Program for Depression in Hospital Nurses During COVID-19 in Vietnam and Thailand: 2-Arm Parallel-Group Randomized Controlled Trial
Issued Date
2024-01-01
Resource Type
eISSN
14388871
DOI
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85202732512
Journal Title
Journal of Medical Internet Research
Volume
26
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Journal of Medical Internet Research Vol.26 (2024)
Suggested Citation
Watanabe K., Tran T.T.T., Sripo N., Sakuraya A., Imamura K., Boonyamalik P., Sasaki N., Tienthong T., Asaoka H., Iida M., Nguyen Q.T., Nguyen N.T., Vu S.T., Ngo T.T., Luyen T.T., Nguyen L.D., Nguyen N.T.V., Nguyen B.T., Matsuyama Y., Takemura Y., Nishi D., Tsutsumi A., Nguyen H.T., Kaewboonchoo O., Kawakami N. Effectiveness of a Smartphone-Based Stress Management Program for Depression in Hospital Nurses During COVID-19 in Vietnam and Thailand: 2-Arm Parallel-Group Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research Vol.26 (2024). doi:10.2196/50071 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/101126
Title
Effectiveness of a Smartphone-Based Stress Management Program for Depression in Hospital Nurses During COVID-19 in Vietnam and Thailand: 2-Arm Parallel-Group Randomized Controlled Trial
Corresponding Author(s)
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, health care professionals experienced high levels of depression. However, extant research has not highlighted effective internet-based psychological interventions to improve the mental health in this population during the pandemic. It remains unclear whether self-guided, internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) programs are effective in improving the mental health of health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a smartphone-based iCBT stress management program for reducing the depression experienced by nurses in Vietnam and Thailand. Methods: From March to April 2022, a 2-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled trial was implemented. One arm offered a 7-week self-guided iCBT program, and the other offered treatment as usual as a control arm. Full-time nurses were recruited from 6 hospitals: 2 hospitals in Vietnam and 4 hospitals in Thailand. The primary outcome of this program was the severity of depression measured by the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 items. Follow-up surveys were conducted to measure the change in depression severity at 3 months (July-August 2022) and at 6 months (October-November 2022) after baseline. Mixed modeling for repeated measures was used to test the effects of the intervention compared with the control for the follow-up. Results: A total of 1203 nurses were included in this study: 602 in the intervention group and 601 in the control group. The follow-up rate at 3 and 6 months ranged from 85.7% (515/601) to 87.5% (527/602). The completion rate for the program was 68.1% (410/602). The group difference in depression was significant at the 3-month follow-up (coefficient=–0.92, 95% CI –1.66 to –0.18; P=.02) and nonsignificant at the 6-month follow-up (coefficient=–0.33, 95% CI –1.11 to 0.45; P=.41). The estimated effect sizes were –0.15 and –0.06 at the 3- and 6-month follow-ups, respectively. Conclusions: Our study shows that the smartphone-based iCBT program was effective in reducing depression at the 3-month follow-up among hospital nurses in Vietnam and Thailand during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the effect size was small, and therefore, these results may not be clinically meaningful.