ArticleInternet interventions2026
404: Personal data not found - Anonymous vs. account-based internet self-help for social anxiety in a partially randomized patient preference trial.
Article in Internet interventions, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
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.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Privacy and data security concerns are frequently cited barriers to the adoption of internet-based interventions. Allowing anonymous use may reduce these barriers, but whether anonymity affects clinical outcomes is unclear. Objective: This study compared an internet-based self-help intervention for social anxiety offering platform-level anonymity with a conventional account-based version and investigated whether anonymity preferences were associated with outcomes. Methods: In this partially randomized patient preference trial, 452 adults with heightened social anxiety symptoms were assigned by randomization or preference to an anonymous or account-based 8-week unguided cognitive behavioral self-help program. Assessments occurred at baseline, post-treatment, and 24-week follow-up. The primary outcome was social anxiety severity, analyzed with mixed-effects models testing superiority of the account-based version. Results: Participants showed substantial reductions in social anxiety symptoms (within-group d = -0.81 to -0.62). The account-based version was not superior in either arm. The post-treatment between-version difference was small (d = 0.09, 95% CI: -0.17 to 0.35) and robust across sensitivity analyses. Secondary outcomes including depressive symptoms and mental quality of life also improved. Improvements were maintained at follow-up. Most participants preferred the account-based version. Exploratory analyses provided no robust evidence of outcome differences by preference or preference match. Discussion: The platform-level anonymous intervention was not outperformed by the conventional account-based program. Because the trial was powered for superiority and included no non-active control, formal equivalence and absolute efficacy remain to be established. Within these limits, the findings provide no evidence that the privacy-protective, account-free design came at the cost of reduced symptom improvement.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.