Needs and preferences regarding information strategies on e-mental health interventions among healthcare professionals: a mixed-methods study involving a discrete choice experiment

在精神障碍的流行率与作为额外预防和治疗选择的循证电子精神健康干预措施的边际吸收率之间存在显著差异。自2020年秋季以来，医生和心理治疗师可以在法定健康保险公司的费用上开某些数字健康应用程序（德国DiGA），但仍然有许多专业人士对这些创新感到不太了解。然而，鉴于信息战略的无数选择（例如，内容、格式、媒体或交流渠道、来源等属性），仍不清楚哪些信息对他们最重要，以及应如何准确地提供信息。因此，这个问题需要基础研究，旨在了解复杂的信息需求和偏好，在医疗保健专业人员之间的电子精神卫生干预措施，作为他们在一般人群中采用的关键乘数。我们专注于医疗保健专业人员的信息策略，作为患者值得信赖的健康信息源，并促进知情使用电子精神卫生干预措施，需要涉及定性和定量研究方法的上下文敏感的调查。因此，拟议的调查结果可以帮助开发数字健康工具的量身定制的信息策略，这将与混合方法的研究方法进行调查，并进行陈述的偏好调查（即离散选择实验：DCE）。这项研究的目的是：（1）探讨信息需求的电子精神卫生干预措施，并确定潜在的重要特征（属性不同的水平）的信息战略之间的偏好评估（形成性定性研究）在德国的医疗保健专业人员。(2)选择不同层次的属性，并推导出关于电子精神卫生干预（概念发展）的信息战略的潜在设计的假设。(3)构建和预测试选择任务模仿现实世界的信息策略，使用参与式方法（方法发展）。(4)进行DCE，以评价医疗保健专业人员对电子精神卫生干预的信息偏好（定量主研究）。结果包括信息策略的选择（由属性和级别组成）和相对重要性（权衡），以及基于共享偏好的潜在类别的医疗保健专业人员的识别。此外，我们的目标是提出信息战略建议，作为行动指南的基础，以提高有效执行战略的实用价值。

There is a remarkable discrepancy between the prevalence of mental disorders and the marginal uptake rates of evidence-based e-mental health interventions as additional prevention and treatment options. Since fall 2020, physicians and psychotherapists can prescribe certain digital health applications (German DiGA) on the expense of statutory health insurance companies, but still many professionals feel not well informed about these innovations. However, it remains unclear which information is most important for them and how exactly the information should be provided given the countless option for information strategies (e.g. attributes like content, format, media or commutation channel, sources, etc.). Hence, this issue calls for basic research aiming at understanding complex information needs and preferences regarding e-mental health interventions among healthcare professionals as key multipliers for their adoption in the general population. Our focus on information strategies for healthcare professionals as trusted health information source for patients and promoting the informed use of e-mental health interventions requires a context-sensitive inquiry involving both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Prospectively, the results of the proposed investigation could help develop tailored information strategies on digital health tools, which will be investigated with a mixed-methods research approach with a stated preferences survey (i.e. discrete-choice-experiment: DCE). The aims of the study are: (1) To explore information needs regarding e-mental health interventions, and to identify potentially important features (attributes varying in levels) of information strategies among healthcare professionals in Germany for the preference assessment (formative qualitative research). (2) To select attributes varying in levels and to derive assumptions on potential designs of information strategies on e-mental health interventions (conceptual development). (3) To construct and pretest choice tasks mimicking real-world information strategies using participatory approaches (methodological development). (4) To conduct a DCE in order to evaluate information preferences regarding e-mental health interventions in healthcare professionals (quantitative main study). Outcomes include information strategy choice (composed of attributes and levels) and the relative importance (trade-offs) as well as the identification of latent classes of healthcare professionals based on shared preferences. In addition, we aim to derive recommendations for information strategies as basis for an action guideline in order to increase the practical value with respect to effective implementation strategies.