ArticleDigital health
Effectiveness of a stepped-care programme of internet-based psychological interventions for healthcare workers with psychological distress: Study protocol for the RESPOND healthcare workers randomised controlled trial.
Article in Digital health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04980326 (A Scalable Low-intensity Psychological Intervention to Reduce Psychological Distress Among Healthcare Workers Involved in the First COVID-19 Outbreak in Spain), which is not on this map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
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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.
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.
A Scalable Low-intensity Psychological Intervention to Reduce Psychological Distress Among Healthcare Workers Involved in the First COVID-19 Outbreak in Spain: a Randomized Trial
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Digital Stepped-Care Program to Reduce Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms Among Long-Term Care Workers With Psychological Distress: The REPICAL Study.Depression and anxiety · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Effectiveness of a mental health stepped-care programme for healthcare workers with psychological distress in crisis settings: a multicentre randomised controlled trial.BMJ mental health · 2023Trial
- Psychological Distress and Health-Related Quality of Life in Romanian Adults with Diabetes Mellitus: A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Positive appraisal style predicts long-term stress resilience and mediates the effect of a pro-resilience intervention.Nature communications · 2025Observational
- A Digital Psychosocial Service (Sui App) for Arabic-Speaking Refugees in Switzerland: Development and Cultural-Contextual Adaptation Using a User-Centered and Participatory Approach.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- A Chatbot-Based Version of a World Health Organization-Validated Intervention (Self-Help Plus) for Stress Management in Pregnant Women: Protocol for a Usability Study.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Effectiveness of a stepped-care programme of WHO psychological interventions in a population of migrants: results from the RESPOND randomized controlled trial.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2025Article
- Psychological distress and compliance with sanitary measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.PloS one · 2025Article
- A stress-reduction eHealth intervention for healthcare workers in primary care settings: an implementation study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- A Chatbot-Based Version of the World Health Organization-Validated Self-Help Plus Intervention for Stress Management: Co-Design and Usability Testing.JMIR human factors · 2024Article
- Addressing mental health problems among persons without stable housing in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: study protocol for a randomised trial. RESPOND - France.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Strategies for coping with stress in mothers of children with atopic dermatitis - a cross-sectional study.Postepy dermatologii i alergologii · 2023Article
- World Health Organization's low-intensity psychosocial interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of Problem Management Plus and Step-by-Step.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2023Article
- Effectiveness of a stepped-care programme of WHO psychological interventions in migrant populations resettled in Italy: Study protocol for the RESPOND randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
25 authors at 11 institutions in 8 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background and aims: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has challenged health services worldwide, with a worsening of healthcare workers' mental health within initial pandemic hotspots. In early 2022, the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly around the world. This study explores the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a stepped-care programme of scalable, internet-based psychological interventions for distressed health workers on self-reported anxiety and depression symptoms. Methods: We present the study protocol for a multicentre (two sites), parallel-group (1:1 allocation ratio), analyst-blinded, superiority, randomised controlled trial. Healthcare workers with psychological distress will be allocated either to care as usual only or to care as usual plus a stepped-care programme that includes two scalable psychological interventions developed by the World Health Organization: A guided self-help stress management guide (Doing What Matters in Times of Stress) and a five-session cognitive behavioural intervention (Problem Management Plus). All participants will receive a single-session emotional support intervention, namely psychological first aid. We will include 212 participants. An intention-to-treat analysis using linear mixed models will be conducted to explore the programme's effect on anxiety and depression symptoms, as measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire - Anxiety and Depression Scale summary score at 21 weeks from baseline. Secondary outcomes include post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, resilience, quality of life, cost impact and cost-effectiveness. Conclusions: This study is the first randomised trial that combines two World Health Organization psychological interventions tailored for health workers into one stepped-care programme. Results will inform occupational and mental health prevention, treatment, and recovery strategies. Registration details: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04980326.
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Registered trials
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.