ISRCTN - ISRCTN76460837: Multicultural Information on Depression: Effects of a multilingual information website intervention on the levels of depression literacy and depression related stigma in Greek-born and Italian-born immigrants living in Australia

Plain English Summary

Not provided at time of registration

Trial website

http://www.MIDonline.com.au

Contact information

Type

Scientific

Primary contact

Dr Litza Kiropoulos

ORCID ID

Contact details

Monash University
School of Psychology and Psychiatry
Monash Medical Centre
Level 3
Block P
246 Clayton Rd
Clayton
Melbourne
3168
Australia
+61 (0)3 9594 1467
litza.kiropoulos@med.monash.edu.au

Additional identifiers

EudraCT number

ClinicalTrials.gov number

Protocol/serial number

N/A

Study information

Scientific title

Effects of a multilingual information website intervention on the levels of depression literacy and depression related stigma in Greek-born and Italian-born immigrants living in Australia: a cross-sectional randomised controlled trial

Acronym

MIDonline

Study hypothesis

In this study, we evaluate the impact of a new web-based multilingual intervention (MIDonline) on depression literacy, personal and perceived stigma and level of depression among Greek-born and Italian-born immigrants living in Melbourne, Australia.

Ethics approval

Monash University Standing Committee on Ethics in Research involving Humans approved on the 27th June 2006 (ref: 2006/546)

Study design

Single centre cross-sectional randomised controlled trial

Primary study design

Interventional

Secondary study design

Randomised controlled trial

Trial setting

Other

Trial type

Quality of life

Patient information sheet

Not available in web format, please use the contact details below to request a patient information sheet

Condition

Depression and depression related stigma

Intervention

Participants were randomly assigned either to the MIDonline intervention or the control/no intervention interview condition. Participants in both conditions spent on average 1 - 1.5 hours to complete the MIDonline condition or the control interview.

MIDonline Intervention:
The intervention comprised the consumer stream of the MIDonline website (http://www.MIDonline.com.au) which provides online multilingual information about depression designed for middle- to older-aged consumers from a non-English speaking background. The material is available in the Greek, Italian and English languages. The website content incorporates information about symptoms and case studies of depression, how depression is diagnosed, related disorders, causes, treatment options, how to find a bilingual mental health professional and professional psychological care, stigma related to mental illness, and multilingual translated resources. The MIDonline website also includes separate sections for carers and mental health professionals. The information is provided is a culturally relevant way. For example, case studies are representative of middle- to older-aged people of both genders who are Greek-born and Italian-born.

Control condition:
The control intervention consisted of a semi-structured interview with a bilingual interviewer who asked open-ended questions about the participant's depression related illness schemas. Specifically, questions were asked about the causes, important symptoms, course and development, treatments and outcomes of depression.

The follow-up questionnaire was completed an average of 7.95 days (sd = 2.34) after participants completed the post-intervention questionnaire for both the MIDonline and control/interview arms.

Intervention type

Other

Phase

Not Applicable

Drug names

Primary outcome measure

1. Depression literacy, assessed using translated and adapted versions of the D-Lit scale which is a 22-item true/false test of knowledge about depression. A higher score on this scale indicated greater literacy.
2. Depression related stigma; changes in personal (reflecting the participants' personal attitudes) and perceived (reflecting participants' beliefs about the attitudes of others) depression stigma were assessed using the 18-item Depression Stigma Scale. Half of the items required participants to rate how strongly they personally agreed with a statement about depression (e.g., people with depression are unpredictable). The other half of the items asked the participant to indicate what they thought most other people believed about the same issue (e.g. 'most people believe that people with depression are unpredictable'). Ratings were made on a five-point Likert scale. Scores on the total scale range from 0 to 36 for the full scale and 0 to 18 for each of the two nine-item sub-scales, with higher scores indicating greater stigma.
3. Level of depression. Depression severity was measured with the Beck Depression Inventory - version 2 (BDI-II) which is a 21-item instrument for measuring severity of depression in adults. Responses to items covered the 'past two weeks, including today'. Responses on the BDI-II items range from 0 to 6 with higher values indicating higher severity.

All participants who took part in the study completed the pre-, post- and 1 week follow-up questionnaires which included the above outcome measures. The pre- questionnaire was completed just prior to taking part in either the MIDonline intervention or the control condition and the post- assessment straight after the completion of the intervention or control condition. The follow up questionnaire was completed an average of 7.95 days (s.d. = 2.34) after participants completed the post-intervention questionnaire.

Secondary outcome measures

Socio-demographic variables and clinical history such as:
1. Age
2. Gender
3. Birthplace
4. Marital status
5. Level of education
6. Occupation level
7. Currently working
8. Length of stay in Melbourne
9. Greek identification
10. Italian identification
11. Australian identification
12. Current living situation
13. English language proficiency
14. Current work status
15. Alcohol use
16. Memory functioning
17. Reported physical conditions
18. Frequency of physical activity
19. Tobacco use
20. Currently receiving treatment for an emotional or psychological problem
21. What type of treatment being received and from whom
22. Indicators of quality of life

Recorded at the pre-assesment time point only.

Overall trial start date

01/11/2006

Overall trial end date

01/06/2009

Reason abandoned (if study stopped)

Eligibility

Participant inclusion criteria

1. Middle- to older-aged (45+ years of age), either sex
2. Greek-born or Italian-born first generation immigrants
3. Living in Melbourne, Australia

Participant type

Patient

Age group

Adult

Gender

Both

Target number of participants

At least 60 Greek-born immigrants and 60 Italian-born immigrants in each of the intervention and control groups (202 in total)

Participant exclusion criteria

Does not meet inclusion criteria

Recruitment start date

01/11/2006

Recruitment end date

01/06/2009

Locations

Countries of recruitment

Australia

Trial participating centre

Monash University
Melbourne
3168
Australia

Sponsor information

Organisation

The beyondblue Victorian Centre of Excellence in Depression and Related Disorders (Australia)

Sponsor type

Research organisation

Website

http://www.beyondblue.org.au/index.aspx?

Funders

Funder type