NCT06707935

Mental Health Help-seeking Promotion in Older Adults

Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words: A Participatory Approach to Codesign Descriptive and Pictorial Social Norm Nudges and a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) to Examine Their Effectiveness in Improving Mental Health Help-seeking Intention

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 540 (estimated)
• Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 60 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The present study aims to examine the effectiveness of descriptive social norm nudges and pictorial social norm nudges in improving mental health help-seeking intention compared to educational information.

Detailed description

This study is a three-arm randomised controlled trial (RCT) in 540 older adults aged 60 years and above recruited through NGOs, testing the utility of revised TPB with baseline data, and the effectiveness of descriptive social norm-nudges (intervention group 1) and pictorial social norm- nudges (intervention group 2) comparing to traditional mental health education (control). Participants will be evenly randomised and receive 1 message/picture per day consecutively for 2 weeks. Researchers blind to group allocation will interview participants at baseline (T0), 2 weeks (post-intervention, T1), and 12 weeks (follow-up, T2). The primary outcomes are changes in subjective norms and help-seeking intention assessed using a revised Chinese version of the theory of planned behaviour questionnaire (C-TPB); secondary outcomes include perceived behavioural control, help-seeking attitude, perceived barriers to help-seeking (C-TPB subscales), and mental health assessed by PHQ-9, GAD-7 and UCLA-3.

Conditions

• Mental Health Help-seeking

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Descriptive social norm nudges	A set of messages with descriptive social norm nudges sent to participants.
BEHAVIORAL	Pictorial social norm nudges	A set of messages with pictorial social norm nudges sent to participants.
BEHAVIORAL	Service as usual	Traditional mental health education information disseminated to participants.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-12-01
• Primary completion: 2026-06-30
• Completion: 2026-12-31
• First posted: 2024-11-27
• Last updated: 2026-02-06

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Hong Kong