Evidence-based health messages increase intention to cope with loneliness in Germany: a randomized controlled online trial

被引：2

作者：

Liu, Shuyan ^{[1
,2
,3
]}

Haucke, Matthias ^{[1
]}

Wegner, Luisa ^{[1
,4
]}

Gates, Jennifer ^{[5
,6
]}

Baernighausen, Till ^{[2
,3
,7
,8
,9
]}

Adam, Maya ^{[7
,10
,11
]}

机构：

[1] Charite Univ Med Berlin, Dept Psychiat & Psychotherapy, Campus Charite Mitte, Berlin, Germany

[2] German Ctr Mental Hlth DZPG, Berlin, Germany

[3] German Ctr Mental Hlth DZPG, Heidelberg, Germany

[4] Free Univ Berlin, Dept Educ & Psychol, Berlin, Germany

[5] Columbia Univ, Mailman Sch Publ Hlth, New York, NY USA

[6] Icahn Sch Med Mt Sinai, New York, NY USA

[7] Heidelberg Univ, Heidelberg Inst Global Hlth HIGH, Heidelberg, Germany

[8] Africa Hlth Res Inst, Durban, South Africa

[9] Harvard Ctr Populat & Dev Studies, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

[10] Stanford Univ, Sch Med, Dept Pediat, Stanford, CA USA

[11] Stanford Univ, Sch Med, Ctr Digital Hlth, Dept Med, Stanford, CA USA

来源：

NPJ DIGITAL MEDICINE | 2024年 / 7卷 / 01期

关键词：

ENTERTAINMENT-EDUCATION; INTERVENTION; EFFICACY; METAANALYSIS; ATTITUDES; VALIDITY; BEHAVIOR; PEOPLE;

D O I：

10.1038/s41746-024-01096-7

中图分类号：

R19 [保健组织与事业（卫生事业管理）];

学科分类号：

摘要：

Loneliness poses a formidable global health challenge in our volatile, post-pandemic world. Prior studies have identified promising interventions to alleviate loneliness, however, little is known about their effectiveness. This study measured the effectiveness of educational entertainment ("edutainment") and/or evidence-based, written health messages in alleviating loneliness and increasing intention to cope with loneliness. We recruited 1639 German participants, aged 18 years or older. We compared three intervention groups who received: (A) edutainment and written health messages, (B) only edutainment, or (C) only written health messages, against (D) a control group that received nothing. The primary outcomes were loneliness and intention to cope with loneliness. Participants were also invited to leave comments about the interventions or about their perception or experiences with loneliness. We found a small (d = 0.254) but significant effect of the written messages on increased intention to cope with loneliness (b = 1.78, t(1602) = 2.91, P = 0.004), while a combination of edutainment and written messages significantly decreased loneliness scores (b = -0.25, t(1602) = -2.06, P = 0.04) when compared with the control, even after adjusting for covariables including baseline values, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and hope. We also observed significantly higher self-esteem scores after exposure to a combination of edutainment and written messages (b = 0.821, t(1609) = 1.76, one-tailed P = 0.039) and significantly higher hope scores after exposure to edutainment-only (b = 0.986, t(1609) = 1.85, one-tailed P = 0.032) when compared with the control group. Our study highlights the benefits of using written messages for increasing intention to cope with loneliness and a combination of edutainment and written messages for easing loneliness. Even in small "doses" (less than 6 min of exposure), edutainment can nurture hope, and edutainment combined with written messages can boost self-esteem.

引用

页数：10

共 61 条

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