Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30135812›Full record

ArticleInternet interventions2016

Effectiveness of MH-Guru, a brief online mental health program for the workplace: A randomised controlled trial.

Kathleen M Griffiths, Kylie Bennett, Jennie Walker, Susan Goldsmid, Anthony Bennett

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Internet interventions, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
19citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

19 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  14. Interventions to reduce the stigma of mental health at work: a narrative review.Psicologia, reflexao e critica : revista semestral do Departamento de Psicologia da UFRGS · 2023
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Kathleen M GriffithsCollege of Medicine, Biology & Environment, The Australian National University, Acton, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.
Kylie BennettCollege of Medicine, Biology & Environment, The Australian National University, Acton, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.
Jennie WalkerCollege of Medicine, Biology & Environment, The Australian National University, Acton, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.
Susan GoldsmidAustralian Institute of Criminology, ACT, Australia.
Anthony BennettCollege of Medicine, Biology & Environment, The Australian National University, Acton, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDepression and anxiety interfere with an individual's quality of life and result in substantial economic costs to the workplace through lost productivity. The internet offers an unparalleled opportunity for the large scale, cost-effective delivery of mental health awareness and destigmatisation programs in the workplace. However, to date high quality assessments of the effectiveness of such workplace programs have been confined to health professional settings. The current study reports the effectiveness of Mental Health Guru (MH-Guru), a two-module online mental health workplace induction program.

methodsA total of 507 employees from a large multi-departmental government workplace were randomised to a 2-week online depression and anxiety educational program (Mental Health Guru; MH-Guru), or a Wait List Control condition. Participants completed online surveys at baseline, 1 week post-intervention and at 6-month follow-up. Primary outcome measures included depression and anxiety literacy, personal stigma about depression and anxiety, and help seeking intentions for anxiety and depression at post-test. Secondary measures included help-seeking attitudes and self-reported help seeking behaviour. Satisfaction measures were also collected.

resultsDropout at post intervention was 26.7% and 21.0% for the MH-Guru and Control conditions respectively. Relative to Control, MH-Guru participants showed significantly greater improvements in depression and anxiety literacy at post intervention. Between group standardized effect sizes at post-test and 6-months were 0.78 and 0.81 for depression literacy and 0.80 and 0.79 for anxiety literacy. Compared to the Control participants, the MH-Guru group also showed significantly greater reductions in depression and anxiety personal stigma. Between group effect sizes in stigma for depression were - 0.56 and - 0.47 at post-test and 6-months respectively and - 0.42 at both time points for anxiety. The MH-Guru intervention was not associated with a differentially greater increase in anxiety or depression help-seeking intentions or improvement in help seeking attitudes compared to the Control group. However, self-reported help-seeking behaviour was significantly greater in the MH-Guru group at post-test. In addition, the MH-Guru group showed greater intentions to seek help for depression from the Internet at 6-month follow-up. Satisfaction items suggested that the program was acceptable to employees.

conclusionsBrief online programs such as MH-Guru have the potential to play an important role in increasing mental health awareness and decreasing stigmatizing attitudes in the workplace, and by extension the general community.

Indexed as

AnxietyDepressionInternetInterventionMental healthWork

Identifiers

PMID30135812
PMCPMC6096203

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.