The Mediation Effect of Phobic Anxiety on the Treatment Outcome of Activity and Participation across Age: Comparison between Online and Face-to-Face Rehabilitation Aftercare of an RCT

Lingling Gao, Alina Dahmen, Franziska Maria Keller, Petra Becker and Sonia Lippke
Additional contact information
Lingling Gao: Department of Psychology & Methods, Jacobs University Bremen, 28759 Bremen, Germany
Alina Dahmen: Department of Psychology & Methods, Jacobs University Bremen, 28759 Bremen, Germany
Franziska Maria Keller: Department of Psychology & Methods, Jacobs University Bremen, 28759 Bremen, Germany
Petra Becker: Dr. Becker Klinikgruppe, 50968 Cologne, Germany
Sonia Lippke: Department of Psychology & Methods, Jacobs University Bremen, 28759 Bremen, Germany

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 20, 1-14

Abstract: The efficacy of internet and mobile-based interventions (IMIs) has been demonstrated with different mental health disorders, but little is known about the mediating effect of phobic anxiety on activity and participation and the differential effect of age. The current study tested a moderated mediation model with short-term change in phobic anxiety mediating between treatment (IMI vs. face-to-face, F2F) and long-term change in activity and participation, and age of patients moderating this mediation. Participants ( N = 142) were recruited from psychosomatic rehabilitation clinics and randomized into the IMI psychosomatic aftercare or F2F psychosomatic aftercare. Moderated mediation analyses were conducted using R software. Results showed that the long-term treatment effects of activity and participation (? c = ?0.18, p = 0.034; ? c’ = ?0.13, p = 0.145) were improved through the successful decrease of phobic anxiety (? a = ?0.18, p = 0.047; ? b = 0.37, p = 0.010). Older patients benefited equally from both IMI and F2F interventions regarding short-term treatment change in phobic anxiety, while younger participants benefited more from IMI (? Age*Treatment = 0.20, p = 0.004). IMIs targeting mental disorders can improve activity and participation along with phobic anxiety, especially in younger individuals. The needs of older patients should be considered with the development and improvement of IMIs.

Keywords: Internet- and mobile-based interventions; digital interventions; mental health disorders; phobias; social participation; age; rehabilitation; aftercare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/20/10919/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/20/10919/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:20:p:10919-:d:658378

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().