Public Attitudes Toward Guided Internet-Based Therapies: Web-Based Survey Study (Preprint)

Abstract

Background: Internet interventions have been proposed to improve the accessibility and utilization of evidence-based psychological treatments. However, little is known about attitudes toward such treatments, which can be an important barrier to their utilization. Objective: This study aimed to (1) determine attitudes toward guided internet interventions, to (2) assess its acceptability compared to other internet-based formats, and to (3) explore predictors of acceptance. Methods: A web-based survey (N=646) assessed attitudes toward guided internet therapies (i.e. "perceived usefulness/helpfulness", "relative advantage compared to face-to face therapy"), preferences for delivery modes ("e-preference": guided Internet interventions, unguided internet interventions, video conferencing psychotherapy (VCP)) as well as potential predictors of attitudes and preferences, including socio-demographics, help seeking-related variables, attachment style, perceived stress. Results: Although most participants perceived internet interventions as useful or helpful (65.9%, 426/646), the minority indicated their relative advantage compared to face-to-face therapy (8.7%, 56/646). Most participants preferred guided internet interventions (39.0%, 252/646) over VCP (22.8%, 147/646), unguided internet interventions (19.2%, 124/646) and not using internet interventions (18.8%, 121/646; missing: 0.2%). Attachment avoidance and stress were related to epreference (all P<.05). Moreover, preference for therapist-guided internet interventions was higher for individuals aware of internet-based treatment (χ

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“…The concept of attitudes has been adopted to explain acceptance toward emerging digital technologies, such in the original Technology Acceptance Model (23), and has during the last decade been recognized to be a specifically important research target for the field of internet interventions (24). Several studies have investigated the general public's (25,26), stakeholders' (27), clinicians' (28)(29)(30) and different patient populations' (31,32) attitudes toward internet interventions, yet only a handful of studies have investigated whether users' attitudes at treatment entry affect outcome.…”