Abstract
Online mental health services provide a point-of-access to mental healthcare that may otherwise be unavailable or limited, particularly in developing countries. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research into individual differences between those who prefer online mental health services and those who prefer traditional in-person services, and whether these differences vary as a function of culture. This study investigated differences in preferences for online or in-person mental health services on e-health literacy, age, education level, and comfort using the internet in a general community sample recruited from Australia and India. A total of 487 participants (31.6% male; mean age = 33.55, SD = 12.20, range 18–78), 297 Australians and 190 Indians, completed an online or paper-and-pencil survey. A significant negative relationship between age and e-health literacy was found with younger ages associated with higher e-health literacy. Furthermore, e-health literacy scores were significantly higher for the Australian sample. Age, e-health literacy, country-of-residence, education level, and comfort in using the internet did not predict mental health service preference. The results suggest that preference for in-person or online mental healthcare is independent of demographic and cultural factors and indicate that online mental health services may be acceptable to Indian health service consumers.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arjadi, R., Nauta, M. H., Chowdhary, N., & Bockting, C. L. H. (2015). A systematic review of online interventions for mental health in low and middle income countries: A neglected field. Global Mental Health, 2, e12. https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2015.10.
Atkinson, N. L., Saperstein, S. L., & Pleis, J. (2009). Using the internet for health-related activities: Findings from a national probability sample. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 11(1), e4. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1035.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2012). Australian health survey: First results, 2011–2012 (Cat. No. 4364.0.55.001). Canberra.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2014). Household use of information technology, Australia, 2012–2013 (Cat. No. 8146.0). Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2012). Australia’s health 2012: The thirteenth biennial health report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australia’s Health (Vol. 13). Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Bradford, S., & Rickwood, D. (2014). Adolescent’s preferred modes of delivery for mental health services. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 19(1), 39–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.12002.
Britt, R. K., & Hatten, K. N. (2013). Need for cognition and electronic health literacy and subsequent information seeking behaviors among university undergraduate students. SAGE Open, 3(4), 1–10.
Census of India. (2001). Literacy and level of education. http://censusindia.gov.in/%28S%28lhcwwu4534lwlx45evbxuxec%29%29/Census_And_You/literacy_and_level_of_education.aspx. Accessed 15 Dec 2016.
Census of India. (2011). CensusInfo India 2011. http://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/censusinfodashboard/index.html. Accessed 15 Dec 2016.
Christensen, H., & Petrie, K. (2013). State of the e-mental health field in Australia: Where are we now? The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 47(2), 117–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004867412471439.
Clough, B. A., Zarean, M., Ruane, I., Mateo, N. J., Aliyeva, T. A., & Casey, L. M. (2017). Going global: Do consumer preferences, attitudes, and barriers to using e-mental health services differ across countries? Journal of Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2017.1370639.
Corrigan, P. W. (2004). How stigma interferes with mental health care. The American Psychologist, 59(7), 614–625.
Corrigan, P. W., & Watson, D. A. C. (2007). The stigma of psychiatric disorders and the gender, ethnicity, and education of the perceiver. Community Mental Health Journal, 43(5), 439–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-007-9084-9.
Cotten, S. R., & Gupta, S. S. (2004). Characteristics of online and offline health information seekers and factors that discriminate between them. Social Science & Medicine, 59(9), 1795–1806.
Desai, S., Vanneman, R., & National Council of Applied Economic Research, N. D. (2005). India Human Development Survey (IHDS), 2005. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) (distributor). https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR22626.v11.
Fairburn, C. G., & Patel, V. (2017). The impact of digital technology on psychological treatments and their dissemination. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 88, 19–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2016.08.012.
Ghaddar, S. F., Valerio, M. A., Garcia, C. M., & Hansen, L. (2012). Adolescent health literacy: The importance of credible sources for online health information. The Journal of School Health, 82(1), 28–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1561.2011.00664.x.
Gould, M. S., Velting, D., Kleinman, M., Lucas, C., Thomas, J. G., & Chung, M. (2004). Teenagers’ attitudes about coping strategies and help-seeking behavior for suicidality. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 43(9), 1124–1133.
Internet and Mobile Association of India. (2016). Mobile internet in India 2016. India.
Kalichman, S. C., Ramachandran, B., & Catz, S. (1999). Adherence to combination antiretroviral therapies in HIV patients of low health literacy. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 14(5), 267–273.
Khokhar, A. (2009). Short text messages (SMS) as a reminder system for making working women from Delhi Breast Aware. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention: APJCP, 10(2), 319–322.
Kinengyere, A. A. (2007). The effect of information literacy on the utilization of electronic information resources in selected academic and research institutions in Uganda. Electronic Library, 25(3), 328–341.
Klein, B., & Cook, S. (2010). Preferences for e-mental health services amongst an online Australian sample. E-Journal of Applied Psychology, 6(1), 28–39.
Math, S. B., & Srinivasaraju, R. (2010). Indian psychiatric epidemiological studies: Learning from the past. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 52(Suppl 1), S95–S103. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.69220.
Miniwatts Marketing Group. (2016). Internet world stats. http://www.internetworldstats.com/. Accessed 15 Dec 2016.
Mucic, D., Hilty, D. M., & Yellowlees, P. M. (2016). e-Mental health toward cross-cultural populations worldwide. In D. Mucic, D. M. Hilty, D. Mucic, & D. M. Hilty (Eds.), e-Mental health (pp. 77–91). Cham: Springer.
Neter, E., & Brainin, E. (2012). eHealth literacy: Extending the digital divide to the realm of health information. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 14(1), e19–e19. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1619.
Norman, C. D., & Skinner, H. A. (2006). eHEALS: The eHealth Literacy Scale. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 8(4), e27.
Paek, H.J., & Hove, T. (2012). Social cognitive factors and perceived social influences that improve adolescent eHealth literacy. Health Communication, 27(8), 727–737. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2011.616627.
Ramani, S. (2015). The internet and education in the developing world—Hopes and reality. Smart Learning Environments, 2(1), 1–16.
Schneider, J., Sarrami Foroushani, P., Grime, P., & Thornicroft, G. (2014). Acceptability of online self-help to people with depression: Users’ views of MoodGYM versus informational websites. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16(3), e90. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.2871.
Scott, T. L., Gazmararian, J. A., Williams, M. V., & Baker, D. W. (2002). Health literacy and preventive health care use among Medicare enrollees in a managed care organization. Medical Care, 40(5), 395–404.
Slade, T., Johnston, A., Teesson, M., Whiteford, H., Burgess, P., Pirkis, J., et al. (2009). The mental health of Australians 2: Report on the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Canberra: Department of Health and Ageing.
Taneja, U., & Sushil, (2007). e-Healthcare in India: Critical success factors for sustainable health systems. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 129(Pt 1), 257–261.
Wang, P. S., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., Angermeyer, M. C., Borges, G., Bromet, E. J., et al. (2007). Use of mental health services for anxiety, mood, and substance disorders in 17 countries in the WHO world mental health surveys. Lancet, 370(9590), 841–850.
World Health Organization. (2001a). Atlas: Country profiles on mental health resources 2001. Geneva: World Health Organization.
World Health Organization. (2001b). The world health report 2001—Mental health: New understanding, new hope. Geneva: World Health Organization.
World Health Organization. (2011). Mental health atlas 2011. Geneva: World Health Organization.
World Health Organization. (2013). Mental health action plan 2013–2020. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Ybarra, M., & Suman, M. (2008). Reasons, assessments and actions taken: Sex and age differences in uses of Internet health information. Health Education Research, 23(3), 512–521.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Austin, D.W., Bhola, P., Tebble, C. et al. Preferences for Online Mental Health Services Among Australian and Indian Samples: A Cross-Cultural Comparison. Psychol Stud 63, 376–383 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-018-0453-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-018-0453-y