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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Aging

Date Submitted: May 4, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: May 9, 2018 - Jul 6, 2018
Date Accepted: Sep 7, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Feasibility and Conceptualization of an e-Mental Health Treatment for Depression in Older Adults: Mixed-Methods Study

Eichenberg C, Schott M, Sawyer A, Aumayr G, Plößnig M

Feasibility and Conceptualization of an e-Mental Health Treatment for Depression in Older Adults: Mixed-Methods Study

JMIR Aging 2018;1(2):e10973

DOI: 10.2196/10973

PMID: 31518235

PMCID: 6715022

Feasibility and Conceptualization of an e-Mental Health Treatment for Depression in Older Adults: Mixed-Methods Study

  • Christiane Eichenberg; 
  • Markus Schott; 
  • Adam Sawyer; 
  • Georg Aumayr; 
  • Manuela Plößnig

ABSTRACT

Background:

Depression is one of the most common mental disorders in older adults. Unfortunately, it often goes unrecognized in the older population.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to identify how Web-based apps can recognize and help treat depression in older adults.

Methods:

Focus groups were conducted with mental health care experts. A Web-based survey of 56 older adults suffering from depression was conducted. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 2 individuals.

Results:

Results of the focus groups highlighted that there is a need for a collaborative care platform for depression in old age. Findings from the Web-based study showed that younger participants (aged 50 to 64 years) used electronic media more often than older participants (aged 65 years and older). The interviews pointed in a comparable direction.

Conclusions:

Overall, an e-mental (electronic mental) health treatment for depression in older adults would be well accepted. Web-based care platforms should be developed, evaluated, and in case of evidence for their effectiveness, integrated into the everyday clinic.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Eichenberg C, Schott M, Sawyer A, Aumayr G, Plößnig M

Feasibility and Conceptualization of an e-Mental Health Treatment for Depression in Older Adults: Mixed-Methods Study

JMIR Aging 2018;1(2):e10973

DOI: 10.2196/10973

PMID: 31518235

PMCID: 6715022

Per the author's request the PDF is not available.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.