Mobile Phone and Web-based Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Depressive Symptoms and Mental Health Comorbidities in People Living With Diabetes: Results of a Feasibility Study

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Abstract

Background

Depression is often comorbid with diabetes; however, undertreatment of depressive symptoms in people affected is common.

Objective

We studied preliminary acceptability and effectiveness of a fully automated, mobile phone, and web-based public health intervention, myCompass, for reducing depressive symptoms and improving mental health comorbidities in people with diabetes.

Methods

In this single-group feasibility study, 89 volunteers with type 1 (n=34) or type 2 (n=55) diabetes and at least mild depressive symptoms used myCompass for 7 weeks. Web-based measures of depressive and anxious symptoms, functional impairment, diabetes-specific variables, and user satisfaction were completed at baseline, postintervention, and 3-month follow-up.

Results

Retention rates were 54% (n=48) at postintervention and 36% (n=32) at follow-up. Depressive symptoms were significantly improved at postintervention ( P<.001; within-group effect size d=1.05), with gains persisting at follow-up. Mental health comorbidities, including anxiety ( P<.001), functioning ( P<.001), and diabetes-specific distress ( P<.001), also showed significant and sustained improvement. Satisfaction with myCompass was high, with convenience and ease of program use, and relevance of program content rated positively by participants.

Conclusions

The myCompass program shows promise as an acceptable and effective treatment for depression and comorbid mental health problems in people with diabetes. The program is broadly available, free to use, and may benefit patients with diabetes who do not access services and/or wish to manage their mental health themselves. Replication of these findings in a controlled study is warranted.

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Most cited references 47

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The Patient Health Questionnaire Somatic, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptom Scales: a systematic review.

Kurt Kroenke, Robert L Spitzer, Janet B W Williams … (2010)

Depression, anxiety and somatization are the most common mental disorders in primary care as well as medical specialty populations; each is present in at least 5-10% of patients and frequently comorbid with one another. An efficient means for measuring and monitoring all three conditions would be desirable. Evidence regarding the psychometric and pragmatic characteristics of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 depression, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)-7 anxiety and PHQ-15 somatic symptom scales are synthesized from two sources: (1) four multisite cross-sectional studies (three conducted in primary care and one in obstetric-gynecology practices) comprising 9740 patients, and (2) key studies from the literature that have studied these scales. The PHQ-9 and its abbreviated eight-item (PHQ-8) and two-item (PHQ-2) versions have good sensitivity and specificity for detecting depressive disorders. Likewise, the GAD-7 and its abbreviated two-item (GAD-2) version have good operating characteristics for detecting generalized anxiety, panic, social anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. The optimal cutpoint is > or = 10 on the parent scales (PHQ-9 and GAD-7) and > or = 3 on the ultra-brief versions (PHQ-2 and GAD-2). The PHQ-15 is equal or superior to other brief measures for assessing somatic symptoms and screening for somatoform disorders. Cutpoints of 5, 10 and 15 represent mild, moderate and severe symptom levels on all three scales. Sensitivity to change is well-established for the PHQ-9 and emerging albeit not yet definitive for the GAD-7 and PHQ-15. The PHQ-9, GAD-7 and PHQ-15 are brief well-validated measures for detecting and monitoring depression, anxiety and somatization. Copyright 2010. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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Jennifer M de Groot, R R Anderson, K Freedland … (2015)

The objective of this study was to examine the strength and consistency of the relationship between depression and diabetes complications in studies of type 1 and type 2 adult patients with diabetes. MEDLINE and PsycINFO databases were searched for articles examining depression and diabetes complications in type 1 and type 2 diabetes samples published between 1975 and 1999. Meta-analytic procedures were used. Studies were reviewed for diabetes type, sample size, statistical tests, and measures of diabetes complications and depression. Significance values, weighted effect sizes r, 95% confidence intervals (CI), and tests of homogeneity of variance were calculated for the overall sample (k = 27) and for subsets of interest. A total of 27 studies (total combined N = 5374) met the inclusion criteria. A significant association was found between depression and complications of diabetes (p < .00001, z = 5.94). A moderate and significant weighted effect size (r = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.22-0.28) was calculated for all studies reporting sufficient data (k = 22). Depression was significantly associated with a variety of diabetes complications (diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, macrovascular complications, and sexual dysfunction). Effect sizes were in the small to moderate range (r = 0.17 to 0.32). These findings demonstrate a significant and consistent association of diabetes complications and depressive symptoms. Prospective, longitudinal studies are needed to identify the pathways that mediate this association.

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Assessment of diabetes-related distress.

Ivan Anderson, David C. Schwartz, William H. Polonsky … (1995)

To describe a new measure of psychosocial adjustment specific to diabetes, the Problem Areas in Diabetes Survey (PAID), and to present initial information on its reliability and validity. Before their routine clinic appointments, 451 female patients with type I and type II diabetes, all of whom required insulin, completed a self-report survey. Included in the survey was the PAID, a 20-item questionnaire in which each item represents a unique area of diabetes-related psychosocial distress. Each item is rated on a six-point Likert scale, reflecting the degree to which the item is perceived as currently problematic. A total scale score, hypothesized to reflect the overall level of diabetes-related emotional distress, is computed by summing the total item responses. To examine the concurrent validity of the PAID, the survey also included a series of standardized questionnaires assessing psychosocial functioning (general emotional distress, fear of hypoglycemia, and disordered eating), attitudes toward diabetes, and self-care behaviors. All subjects were assessed for HbA1, within 30 days of survey completion and again approximately 1-2 years later. Finally, long-term diabetic complications were determined through chart review. Internal reliability of the PAID was high, with good item-to-total correlations. Approximately 60% of the subject sample reported at least one serious diabetes-related concern. As expected, the PAID was positively associated with relevant psychosocial measures of distress, including general emotional distress, disordered eating, and fear of hypoglycemia, short- and long-term diabetic complications, and HbA1, and negatively associated with reported self-care behaviors. The PAID accounted for approximately 9% of the variance in HbA1. Diabetes-related emotional distress, as measured by the PAID, was found to be a unique contributor to adherence to self-care behaviors after adjustment for age, diabetes duration, and general emotional distress. In addition, the PAID was associated with HbA1 even after adjustment for age, diabetes duration, general emotional distress, and adherence to self-care behaviors. These findings suggest that the PAID, a brief, easy-to-administer instrument, may be valuable in assessing psychosocial adjustment to diabetes. In addition to high internal reliability, the consistent pattern of correlational findings indicates that the PAID is tapping into relevant aspects of emotional distress and that its particular feature, the measurement of diabetes-related emotional distress, is uniquely associated with diabetes-relevant outcomes. These data are also consistent with the hypothesis that diabetes-related emotional distress, separate from general emotional distress, is an independent and major contributor to poor adherence. Given that the study was limited to female patients using insulin, further examination of the clinical usefulness of the PAID will need to focus on more heterogeneous samples.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Janine Clarke:

Black Dog InstituteHospital RoadRandwick, 2031Australia61 2 9382 376761 2 9382 8207janine.clarke@unsw.edu.au

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2652-5273

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): JMIR Ment Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): JMIR Ment Health

Journal ID (publisher-id): JMH

Title: JMIR Mental Health

Publisher: JMIR Publications (Toronto, Canada )

ISSN (Electronic): 2368-7959

Publication date Collection: Apr-Jun 2016

Publication date (Electronic): 31 May 2016

Volume: 3

Issue: 2

Electronic Location Identifier: e23

Affiliations

[1] ¹Black Dog Institute RandwickAustralia

[2] ²School of Psychiatry UNSW Australia SydneyAustralia

Author notes

Corresponding Author: Janine Clarke janine.clarke@ 123456unsw.edu.au

Author information

Janine Clarke http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2652-5273

Judith Proudfoot http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3872-9871

Howard Ma http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4726-9552

Article

Publisher ID: v3i2e23

DOI: 10.2196/mental.5131

PMC ID: 4908303

PubMed ID: 27245948

SO-VID: f8db091e-1145-41d4-a404-f4229cf9bb2c

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Mental Health, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://mental.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.

History

Date received : 30 November 2015

Date revision requested : 21 December 2015

Date revision received : 22 March 2016

Date accepted : 13 April 2016

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