Effect of brief, personalized feedback derived from momentary data on the mental health of women with risk of common mental disorders in Hong Kong: A randomized clinical trial.

This study aimed to determine the efficacy of digitalized personalized feedback derived from experience sampling method (ESM) data for improving women's mental health and to explore its potential to become a prevention intervention. In this three-arm, randomized controlled trial, 124 adult women aged 18 to 64 years with mild to moderate depressive and anxiety symptoms were randomly assigned to ESM with personalized feedback (ESM-f, 40 women), ESM alone (ESM, 43 women), or no additional intervention (control, 41 women). The ESM-f and ESM groups received six weeks of ESM, but only the former received biweekly individualized feedback. The primary outcome measure was changes in mental well-being as measured by the 21-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) from baseline to 8, 12, 16, 20, and 32 weeks and the comparison between the ESM-f and the control group. The ESM-f group experienced a significantly greater decline in DASS-21 total scores compared with the control group while the ESM and control groups had a comparable decline in DASS-21 total scores. ESM-derived personalized feedback can improve women's mental well-being. Additional research is needed to determine its cost-effectiveness, long-term consequences, and efficacy as a preventive intervention for common mental disorders.

Relationship between stressful life events, stigma and life satisfaction with the willingness of disclosure of psychotic illness: A community study in Hong Kong.

AIM: The preference of and potential barriers to disclosure of psychotic illness vary across cultures. Studying its patterns and correlates can guide the design of future culture-specific intervention and public education approaches to improve willingness to disclose and thereby reducing the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP). METHODS: A population-based, random telephone survey was conducted with a total of 1514 respondents in Hong Kong in January 2018. Cross-sectional data on willingness to disclose psychotic illness, life satisfaction, stigmatizing attitude and recent experience of stressful life events (SLEs) were analysed against age and gender using structural equation modelling (SEM). RESULTS: Unwillingness to disclose to anyone was reported by 12% of the participants. Family was reported as the preferred disclosure candidate by most respondents. Our model, which showed a good fit to the data demonstrated that stigmatizing attitude and life satisfaction were directly associated with willingness to disclose illness. Younger age was correlated with more recent experience of SLEs, lower life satisfaction and less willingness to disclose illness. Women's disclosure willingness was positively associated with their life satisfaction, which was sensitive to recent exposure to single SLE. In contrast, men's was negatively associated with their stigmatizing attitude, which increased significantly upon exposure to two or more recent SLEs. CONCLUSION: Encouraging the public to help their family to seek treatment should be a focal point of a successful mental health public education campaign. Cultural-specific and integrated interventions should be developed targeting the vulnerable groups including people with high recent life stress, particularly woman and those with younger age.