Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2024 Nov 20:12:1504720.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1504720. eCollection 2024.

The help-seeking process and predictors of mental health care use among individuals with depressive symptoms: a machine learning approach

Vanessa Juergensen #  1 , Lina-Jolien Peter #  1 , David Steyrl  2 , Cindy Sumaly Lor  2 , Anh Phi Bui  1 , Thomas McLaren  3 , Holger Muehlan  3   4 , Samuel Tomczyk  3 , Silke Schmidt  3 , Georg Schomerus  1   5
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

The help-seeking process and predictors of mental health care use among individuals with depressive symptoms: a machine learning approach

Vanessa Juergensen et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Purpose: The goal of the study was to identify the most important influences on professional healthcare use of people with depressive symptoms. We incorporated findings from research areas of health behaviors, stigma, and motivation to predict the help-seeking process variables from a wide range of personal factors and attitudes.

Methods: A sample of 1,368 adults with untreated depressive symptoms participated in an online survey with three-and six-month follow-ups. We conducted multiple linear regressions for (a) help-seeking attitudes, and (b) help-seeking intentions, and logistic regression for (c) help-seeking behavior with machine learning methods.

Results: While self-stigma and treatment experience are important influences on help-seeking attitudes, complaint perception is relevant for intention. The best predictor for healthcare use remains the intention. Along the help-seeking process, we detected a shift of relevant factors from broader perceptions of mental illness and help-seeking to concrete suffering, i.e., subjective symptom perception.

Conclusion: The results suggest a spectrum of influencing factors ranging from personal, self-determined factors to socially normalized factors. We discuss social influences on professional help-seeking and the use of combined public health programs and tailored help-seeking interventions.

Clinical trial registration: German Clinical Trials Register (https://drks.de/search/en): Identifier DRKS00023557.

Keywords: depressive symptoms; healthcare use; help-seeking; machine learning; mental illness stigma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hypothesized influences on the help-seeking process due to mental health problems, consisting of attitudes, intentions, and actual help-seeking behavior from mental health professionals (psychiatrist, psychologist, general practitioner, counselling center, neurologist). Hypothesized influences displayed as thematic categories. TPB variables: components of theory of planned behavior (11).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Significant influencing variables predicting help-seeking attitudes, intentions, and help-seeking behavior from mental health professionals based on the machine learning models. Only predictors with significant regression weights in the machine learning models are displayed under the respective dependent variable.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Schomerus G, Corrigan PW. The stigma of substance use disorders. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, (2022). doi: 10.1017/9781108936972 - DOI
    1. Nübel J, Müllender S, Hapke U, Jacobi F. Epidemie der depression?: Prävalenzentwicklung und Inanspruchnahme von Hilfs-und Versorgungsangeboten (epidemic of depression?: development of prevalence and help-seeking behaviour). Nervenarzt. (2019) 90:1177–86. doi: 10.1007/s00115-019-0681-y, PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kagstrom A, Alexova A, Tuskova E, Csajbók Z, Schomerus G, Formanek T, et al. . The treatment gap for mental disorders and associated factors in the Czech Republic. Eur Psychiatry. (2019) 59:37–43. doi: 10.1016/j.eurpsy.2019.04.003, PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kohn R, Saxena S, Levav I, Saraceno B. The treatment gap in mental health care. Bull World Health Organ. (2004) 82:858–66. doi: 10.1590/S0042-96862004001100011 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Xu Z, Huang F, Kösters M, Staiger T, Becker T, Thornicroft G, et al. . Effectiveness of interventions to promote help-seeking for mental health problems: systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychol Med. (2018) 48:2658–67. doi: 10.1017/S0033291718001265, PMID: - DOI - PubMed

Publication types