A randomised controlled trial of iChooseWell digital health: A comprehensive biopsychosocial strategies-based wellbeing program.

A randomised controlled trial will be employed to investigate the effectiveness of the iChooseWell digital health program offered through the My Digital Health platform. People taking part in the study will be randomly allocated to either an immediate access to the program, or delayed access (by 8 weeks). The iChooseWell digital health is a self-help program consisting of forty-one biological, psychological, social, and wellness strategies, all designed to increase mind and body health (e.g., brain & gut nutrition, emotional regulation strategies, sleep hygiene, social connectedness, practising gratitude). Participants will be able to choose from all of the biopsychosocial strategies available within the iChooseWell program. Although the number of strategies implemented over the course of the trial is self-determined by the participant, the program does recommend implementing one new strategy per week and undertaking the biopsychosocial self-monitoring of daily mood and lifestyle events (e.g., sleep, social contact, use of alcohol, etc). Background information is also provided on health and wellbeing (e.g., the stress response, brain/neural plasticity) and useful tools and resources are provided to assist in implementing a particular strategy. Each individual wellness strategy is 2-6 pages (taking between 5-20 minutes to read) and its user friendly and interactive components are designed to keep the user engaged. To consolidate learning, participants will be given activities (10 minutes per day on average) to complete offline to practise the principles of the chosen wellness strategies. Participants will also receive automated emails (e.g., remind them to log on, when to complete during, post-intervention and follow-up questionnaires). The iChooseWell program includes text, graphics, audio, video, quizzes, interactive games and downloads. iChooseWell can be accessible via web, mobile or tablet devices. The iChooseWell program is housed within the participant's ‘My Digital Health’ dashboard. My Digital Health is the parent platform that houses a variety of digital health programs. Via the participant’s dashboard, they are able to access several resources. This includes: My Dashboard, My Inbox, My Daily Monitoring, My Progress Graphs, My Timeline, My Profile and My Tutorial. Participants randomised to the iChooseWell digital health immediate access group will complete a pre-intervention assessment (Week 0), during intervention (Week 3) assessment, post-intervention assessment (Week 5) and a 1 and 3-month follow-up assessment (Week 9 and Week 17). Participants randomised to the delayed access group will complete the same assessment phases and will be given access to the iChooseWell digital health program following the 1 month follow-up assessment (Week 9). However, the delayed access group will be asked to complete the post intervention assessment after they have completed the iChooseWell program (Week 13) and a 1 month follow-up (post program) (Week 17). Access to iChooseWell will be provided for the entire trial period. However, while the during, post-intervention and follow up assessments are scheduled, participants will not be able to access the program until they have completed the scheduled assessments (or after the expiry time to complete the scheduled assessment has lapsed). Participants will retain access to the program until Week 21. Participant engagement with the program will be obtained through by passive analytic data (e.g., what pages / strategies they visited / used and when), as well as reviewing the completion of daily mood and lifestyle event survey data and the scheduled intervention assessments.