Modeling Mental Health Information Preferences During the Early Adult Years: A Discrete Choice Conjoint Experiment

Abstract

Although most young adults with mood and anxiety disorders do not seek treatment, those who are better informed about mental health problems are more likely to use services. The authors used conjoint analysis to model strategies for providing information about anxiety and depression to young adults. Participants (N = 1,035) completed 17 choice tasks presenting combinations of 15 four-level attributes of a mental health information strategy. Latent class analysis yielded 3 segments. The virtual segment (28.7%) preferred working independently on the Internet to obtain information recommended by young adults who had experienced anxiety or depression. Self-assessment options and links to service providers were more important to this segment. Conventional participants (30.1%) preferred books or pamphlets recommended by a doctor, endorsed by mental health professionals, and used with a doctor's support. They would devote more time to information acquisition but were less likely to use Internet social networking options. Brief sources of information were more important to the low interest segment (41.2%). All segments preferred information about alternative ways to reduce anxiety or depression rather than psychological approaches or medication. Maximizing the use of information requires active and passive approaches delivered through old-media (e.g. books) and new-media (e.g., Internet) channels.

Social inequalities in health information seeking among young adults in Montreal

“…Our findings provide evidence of multiple-source HISB patterns, therefore suggesting that HISB may be better examined by using profiles that go beyond single sources of information. These results are in line with a recent study that used a clustering approach to examine profiles in mental health information preferences among youth with mental health problems (Cunningham et al, 2014). The authors found that individuals could be classified into specific groups according to their preferences regarding traditional media and virtual media.…”

“…We propose that individuals who seek multiple sources of health information have the best capacity to address health-related concerns and information needs. A growing body of literature supports this hypothesis (Ybarra and Suman, 2008, Ruppel and Rains, 2012, Beck et al, 2014, Cunningham et al, 2014, Younes et al, 2015, and suggests that the use of multiple sources may be beneficial to health (Redmond et al, 2010).…”

Mobilizing Minds: Integrated knowledge translation and youth engagement in the development of mental health information resources

“…Young adults were actively engaged early in the development of research questions. Along the way, these young adults from academic and community settings worked alongside researchers, shaping the research methodology, designing the data collection tools, and collecting data through interviews (Walker et al 2009), focus groups (Ryan-Nicholls et al 2009) and surveys (Cunningham et al 2014;Marcus, Westra & Mobilizing Minds Research Group 2012;Nunes et al 2014;Stewart et al 2014). The young adults also worked with researchers to analyse data and respond to findings.…”

Modeling the anti‐cyberbullying preferences of university students: Adaptive choice‐based conjoint analysis

“…These methods, applied widely by marketing researchers and economists (Hensher, Rose, & Greene, 2005;Orme, 2009), are increasingly used to estimate the extent to which patients, professionals, and public stakeholders value the components of complex health (Ryan, Skatun, & Major, 2007), mental health (Cunningham et al, 2008(Cunningham et al, , 2013(Cunningham et al, , 2014, and prevention programs (Cunningham et al, 2009(Cunningham et al, , 2011. These methods, applied widely by marketing researchers and economists (Hensher, Rose, & Greene, 2005;Orme, 2009), are increasingly used to estimate the extent to which patients, professionals, and public stakeholders value the components of complex health (Ryan, Skatun, & Major, 2007), mental health (Cunningham et al, 2008(Cunningham et al, , 2013(Cunningham et al, , 2014, and prevention programs (Cunningham et al, 2009(Cunningham et al, , 2011.…”