JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Depression is an extremely prevalent issue in the United States with an estimated 7 percent of adults experiencing at least one major depressive episode in 2017. Although psychotherapy and medication management have been shown to be effective treatments for depression, significant barriers in accessing care persist. Virtual care can potentially address some of these obstacles.

Objective:

This study aimed to describe an on-demand mental health system and provide preliminary outcome results for users with depression (PHQ-9≥5).

Methods:

This study included a cross-sectional survey of 742 users across Ginger’s employer customers to characterize the user base. Separately, we conducted an analysis of observational mobile product data from 402 users to characterize engagement and impact among users with depression.

Results:

The majority of respondents from the user survey were female (69.6 percent). 60.7 percent of respondents were ages 18-34, and 38.3 percent of users were ages 35-64. Analysis of 402 users with at least mild depression (PHQ-9≥5) showed the average number of messages for those engaged in behavioral health coaching services was 221. The average number of clinical appointments for members engaged in clinical services from this cohort was 11 over a 12 week period. Analysis of PHQ data showed 61.94 percent of this cohort screened negatively for depression (i.e.likely no diagnosis of Major Depression) at 12 weeks.

Conclusions:

Ginger users are relatively diverse in terms of gender and age demographics. The Ginger on-demand mental health system shows promise in improving outcomes for users with depression according to PHQ data. Future studies could examine which aspects of the Ginger system are associated with changes in clinical outcomes.