(PS8-74) Impact of a Digital Single Session Health-Focused Intervention on Active-Duty Military Personnel

Abstract Text:

Introduction: Active-duty military face high rates of mental health disorders, yet service members often underutilize mental health services due to time constraints and career concerns. Digital interventions may provide a feasible solution within military populations and a growing body of literature suggests that single-session interventions (SSIs) are comparable to longer therapies. Health Education Training (HET), originally designed an active control, is a 45-minute digital SSI, that addresses multiple health behaviors (sleep, diet, exercise, hygiene, stress management, and emotion regulation) and has shown promise in reducing clinical symptoms in other trials. We aimed to assess HET's impact on different clinical outcomes and its acceptability among active-duty personnel.

Method: Using data from a randomized controlled trial primarily aimed at investigating a separate, suicide prevention-focused SSI among active-duty service members, we examined participants randomized to the control HET condition (n = 119, 79% male, M/SD age = 25.3/6.0 years). Participants were recruited from both treatment seeking (n = 24) and general active-duty (n = 95) populations. After completing baseline measures, participants viewed the HET presentation covering strategies for healthy living. Participants then completed acceptability questionnaires post-intervention and 1-month and 3-month self-report assessments indexing treatment outcomes: depression (BDI-II), hopelessness (BHS), anxiety (BAI), insomnia (ISI) and alcohol use (AUDIT).

Results: Participants rated the HET intervention as acceptable: 95.7% rated it as at least moderately helpful and 91.5% rated it as easy to understand. Qualitative feedback suggested adding interactive or animated features would improve engagement. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed significant differences in depression F(1.79, 102.18) = 4.72, p = .02, η2p = .08, hopelessness F(2, 114) = 9.47, p < .001, η2p = .14, and alcohol use F(2, 114) = 4.91, p = .01, η2p = .08 across timepoints, with 27%, 37%, and 27% reductions, respectively, between baseline and month 3. Results indicated reductions in anxiety and insomnia across all timepoints, though they did not reach statistical significance.

Discussion: Responses gauging HET’s acceptability were encouraging, though the intervention may benefit from the addition of elements aimed at increasing engagement. Clinically significant reductions in self-reported depression, hopelessness, and alcohol use over a 3-month period suggest that HET may be capable of addressing common and pernicious mental and behavioral health issues. Findings also contribute to the flourishing body of research supporting SSIs as an acceptable, cost-effective strategy for meaningfully addressing mental health issues among active service members. This study provides encouraging evidence that HET may be a useful standalone treatment for broadly addressing relevant psychopathological problems for both treatment seeking and non-treatment seeking active-duty military members. Future research would benefit from further elucidating the therapeutic mechanisms underlying symptom changes in randomized controlled trials.