Mild, moderate or severe symptoms of depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Mental and Behavioural Disorders
Conditions
Interventions
Recruitment of participants is through the the Youth Income (Renta Joven) scheme, a government nationwide program that provides regular conditional cash transfers to university and technical education
2) Treatment group 2 will have access to the Youth Well-being digital mental health platform plus peer support
3) The control group will receive general information about standard care.
Our main analysis will compare the pooled treatment groups (comprising both, Youth Well-being platform-only and platform-pl
Sponsors
Centre universitaire de médecine générale et santé publique, Lausanne
Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá
Prosperidad Social
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to 100 Years
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. To provide informed consent 2. Registered in the Renta Joven programme 3. 18 years and older 4. Mild, moderate or severe symptoms of depression, anxiety and/or PTSD (excluding individuals with high risk of suicide, who will be offered a safety protocol) 5. Access to a smartphone, PC, tablet or other device with internet 6. To answer positively to a question about their willingness to use a digital platform for mental health and well-being 7. To complete the baseline survey in no less than 4 minutes
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: Participants identified through the baseline survey as having a risk of suicide. These participants will be contacted by a project psychologist and offered psychological first aid, crisis management, and assistance in identifying and accessing local mental health services. The psychologist will track their progress and verify their access to the identified resources.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Mental health, measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety and Depression Scale (PHQ-ADS) index, a composite measure of depression and anxiety derived from the summed scores of the PHQ-9 and General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scales, at baseline, 3, 6 and 9 months 2. Enrolment continuity, measured through the survey by assessing whether participants interrupted their program or dropped out, at baseline, 3, 6 and 9 months 3. Academic performance, measured based on participants’ grade point average (GPA) assessed through survey questions at baseline, 3, 6 and 9 months, complemented with government administrative data | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Standardized scores for depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), and PTSD (PC-PTSD-5) 2. Changes in clinical thresholds for depressive symptoms (measured with the PHQ-9), anxiety symptoms (measured with the GAD-7), and PTSD symptoms (measured with the PC-PTSD-5), at baseline, 3, 6 and 9 months 3. Courses completion, measured by questions on how many courses or modules they took in the prior semester, how many they expect to take, whether failing courses and how many, at baseline, 3 and 6 months 4. Study efforts: measured by questions about hours of self-study and engagement with study programme, at baseline, 3 and 6 months 5. Work and income, measured by questions about work (for all participants) and income (only for participants that completed their studies) during the last academic period, assessed at baseline, 3, 6 and 9 months 6. Future orientation, comprising measures of: a) Patience, assessed through a 10-point Likert scale asking, “Compared to others, do you consider yourself a person willing to give up something today in order to benefit from it in the future?”; b) time discounting, measured through a series of two hypothetical binary choices between immediate and delayed financial rewards; c) self-Control, measured by the BSCS scale, a short 13-item self-report format measure of the general self-control construct; assessed at baseline, 3 and 6 months 7. Employment outlook, measured by questions about aspirations and expectations on their employment and earning six months after graduation, assessed at baseline, 3 and 6 months 8. Education aspirations and expectations, measured through questions about the extent to which they expect to continue and complete their study programme, and aspirations about their studies, assessed at baseline, 3 and 6 months 9. Additional educational and employment outcomes from administrative data, particularly retention and continuity with study programme and compliance with Renta Joven conditions, as well as earnings from form | — |
Countries
Colombia
Contacts
Public ContactMartha Escobar Lux
Outcome results
None listed