Video- Versus Text-Based Psychoeducation in Web-Based E-Mental Health Programs: Randomized Controlled Trial
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Mental health disorders affect 1 in 8 people worldwide, yet many face barriers to accessing care. E-mental health interventions, including self-guided internet-based programs, offer promising solutions. However, the mechanisms driving knowledge gain in such programs remain poorly understood. The role of medium, topic, sequence, and confidence and their interaction in learning outcomes need further investigation. Additionally, the influence of knowledge gaps on the outcome of psychoeducational intervention is not well understood (eg, whether psychoeducation requires an existing knowledge gap to be effective). OBJECTIVE: This randomized controlled trial investigated the role of medium, topic, sequence, and participants' initial knowledge levels on knowledge gain and confidence in fully automated self-guided e-mental health psychoeducation. METHODS: A total of 158 adults (mean age 34, SD 12.4 years; n=118, 74.7% female) were randomized to 8 experimental conditions (receiving video, texts, or both containing psychoeducational content on sleep or social competence; n=142) or a control group (neutral video; n=16). The fully automated interventions (videos) were developed for use in web-based e-mental health interventions. They address transdiagnostic symptoms and hence are relevant across various disorders. To assess the added value of video production for knowledge gain, text-based scripts corresponding to the video content were created and compared. All interventions and outcome assessments were delivered on the web via Qualtrics without face-to-face components. Pre- and postintervention knowledge was assessed using a validated 30-item knowledge test (true/false). Confidence in responses was rated on a 0% to 100% scale. Statistical analyses included 3-way ANOVA and multivariate ANOVA. RESULTS: =2.43; P=.02; d=0.20). No significant differences in knowledge gain were found between video and text formats. Confidence in correct answers increased significantly in the experimental group (mean 42.82, 95% CI 41.15-44.50 to mean 51.67, 95% CI 49.28-54.04), with larger gains for social competence than sleep. Confidence in the control group remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: Both video and text formats effectively facilitated knowledge gain in e-mental health interventions, with no clear advantage of one medium over the other. Participants with prior deficits learned more in areas where they initially lacked knowledge. Confidence in correct answers increased alongside knowledge, highlighting psychoeducation's role in promoting self-efficacy. Future research should explore multimedia integration to enhance adherence and symptom improvement. TRIAL REGISTRATION: German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00026722; https://drks.de/search/en/trial/DRKS00026722.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.005 | 0.009 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.008 | 0.004 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.005 | 0.004 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.021 | 0.002 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".