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

精神障碍的患病率与作为额外预防和治疗选择的循证电子精神卫生干预措施的边际接受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下开出某些数字健康应用程序（德国DiGA），但仍有许多专业人士对这些创新知之甚少。然而，目前还不清楚哪些信息对他们来说是最重要的，以及在无数信息策略选择的情况下，应该如何准确地提供这些信息（例如，内容、格式、媒体或交换渠道、来源等属性）。因此，这一问题要求进行基础研究，旨在了解卫生保健专业人员对电子心理健康干预措施的复杂信息需求和偏好，作为其在一般人群中采用的关键倍增器。我们关注医疗保健专业人员作为患者可信赖的健康信息源的信息策略，并促进电子心理健康干预措施的知情使用，这需要涉及定性和定量研究方法的上下文敏感调查。展望未来，拟议调查的结果可能有助于制定针对数字健康工具的量身定制的信息策略，将采用混合方法研究方法和声明偏好调查（即离散选择实验：DCE）进行调查。本研究的目的是：(1)探索关于电子心理健康干预的信息需求，并确定德国医疗保健专业人员信息策略的潜在重要特征（属性水平不同），以进行偏好评估（形成性定性研究）。(2)选择不同层次的属性，并对电子心理健康干预措施信息战略的潜在设计提出假设（概念发展）。(3)使用参与式方法构建和预测试模拟现实世界信息策略的选择任务（方法学发展）。(4)通过DCE评估医疗专业人员对电子心理健康干预的信息偏好（定量主体研究）。结果包括信息策略选择（由属性和级别组成）和相对重要性（权衡），以及基于共同偏好的潜在医疗保健专业人员类别的识别。此外，我们的目标是得出关于信息战略的建议，作为行动指南的基础，以便增加有效实施战略的实用价值。

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.