Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jan 26, 2022
Date Accepted: May 24, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Long-term effects of a social media-based intervention, Run4Love, on depressive symptoms of people living with HIV: Three-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Emerging studies have shown the effectiveness of mobile health (mHealth) interventions on reducing depressive symptoms among people living with HIV (PLWH). Most of these studies only had short-term follow-up with limited data on long-term effects.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to assess the long-term effects of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) called Run4Love on depressive symptoms among PLWH at 1- and 3-year follow-ups.
Methods:
A total of 300 PLWH with depressive symptoms were recruited and randomized to an intervention or a control group in Guangzhou, China from September 2017 to January 2018. The intervention group received a 3-month Run4Love program, including adapted evidence-based cognitive behavioral stress management (CBSM) courses and exercise promotion via WeChat, a popular social media app. The control group received usual care and a brochure on nutrition. The primary outcome was depressive symptoms measured by the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale. Data used in this study were collected at baseline, 1- and 3-year follow-ups. Generalized estimating equations (GEEs) were performed to examine the group differences at 1- and 3-year follow-ups.
Results:
About half of the participants completed the assessment at 1-year (49.7%, 149/300) and 3-year (59.0%, 177/300) follow-ups. At 1-year follow-up, participants in the intervention group reported significant reduction in depressive symptoms compared to the control group (CES-D: from 23.9 to 18.1 vs. from 24.3 to 23.3, mean=-4.79, 95%CI -7.78 to -1.81; P=0.0018). At 3-year follow-up, between-group difference in CES-D remained statistically significant (from 23.9 to 20.5 vs. from 24.3 to 24.4, mean=-3.63, 95%CI -6.71 to -0.54; P=0.022). No adverse events were reported during the 3-year follow up.
Conclusions:
The mHealth intervention, Run4love, significantly reduced depressive symptoms among PLWH and the intervention effects were sustained at 1- and 3-year follow-ups. Further research is needed to explore the mechanisms of the long-term effects of mHealth interventions such as Run4Love and implement these effective interventions among PLWH. Clinical Trial: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR-IPR-17012606; http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=21019 (Archived by WebCite at https://www.webcitation.org/78Bw2vouF)
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