Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Nov 26, 2024
Date Accepted: Aug 12, 2025
Understanding The Differences Between Online and Offline Mental Health Help Seekers: Comparative Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Telepsychiatry has gained significant traction, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. While various factors influence choosing between online and offline modalities, the differences among populations remain underexplored
Objective:
Comparing adults seeking mental health support online vs offline in private clinics.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study assessing differences between online and offline mental health help seeking regarding sociodemographic factors, internet accessibility and usability, previous help-seeking history, personality traits assessed using the Arabic Big-Five Personality Inventory (ABFPI), and levels of self-stigma measured by the Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale (SSOH).
Results:
A total of 259 participants were included, 136 in the online group and 123 in the offline group. The online group had a higher proportion of graduates, employment rate, and better internet and internet usability. In contrast, the offline group had a higher history of psychiatric visits, while a significant portion of the online group utilized video consultations. The primary reasons for choosing online therapy included ease of access and time-saving benefits. Additionally, the offline group scored higher in conscientiousness and exhibited greater levels of self-stigma.
Conclusions:
This study highlights key differences between online and offline mental health help seekers and enhances our understanding of treatment modality preferences and paves the way for future research.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© 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.