A social media website (supporting our valued adolescents) to support treatment uptake for adolescents with depression and/or anxiety and their parents: Protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background: Few adolescents who experience depression or anxiety connect to mental health treatment. Supporting Our Valued Adolescents (SOVA) is a stakeholder-informed technology intervention that consists of 2 blog-format websites—one for adolescents and another for parents. SOVA is designed to intervene on targets, which may increase the mental health treatment uptake when adolescents with depression or anxiety are identified in primary care settings. Objective: This study aims to describe the protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial designed to refine recruitment and retention strategies, document intervention fidelity and implementation outcomes, and assess changes in health beliefs and knowledge, emotional or informational support, and parent-adolescent communication quality in adolescents and their parents. Methods: Adolescents identified with symptoms of depression or anxiety, for which a health care provider recommends treatment, and their parents will be recruited from clinics where adolescents are seen for primary care. Adolescent-parent dyads will be randomized at 1:1 to both receive the SOVA websites and enhanced usual care or enhanced usual care alone. Baseline measures and 6-week and 3-month outcomes will be collected by Web-based self-report surveys and electronic health record review. The main pilot outcome is the 6-week study retention rate. Analyses will also assess changes in health beliefs and knowledge, emotional support, and parent-adolescent communication in both adolescents and their parents. Results: The project was funded in 2017. Recruitment commenced in April 2018 and enrollment is ongoing, with completion anticipated at the end of 2019 with subsequent plans for data analysis and publication submission in early 2020. Conclusions: The findings of this research will inform the design of a multisite hybrid effectiveness-implementation randomized controlled trial examining the effectiveness and optimal implementation strategies for using SOVA in community primary care settings.