Pathways from health beliefs to treatment utilization for severe depression.

BACKGROUND: Untreated depression is associated with negative behavioral, psychosocial, and physical outcomes leading to socioeconomic costs, disability, and premature mortality. Research has not yet fully developed intervention models to increase the utilization of mental health treatments. The objective of the current study was to characterize the pathways linking health beliefs to treatment utilization among depressed young adults. METHODS: Data were collected in 2017 from 53,760 college students at 54 universities in the United States. Among the respondents, 5,343 screened positive for moderately severe to severe depression. Becker's Health Belief Model (HBM) was the guiding theoretical paradigm. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted to elucidate treatment-seeking behavior based on health beliefs (perceived severity, perceived benefit, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, and cues-to-action) while controlling for relevant sociodemographic covariates. RESULTS: Depression treatment utilization was significantly associated with all domains of the HBM. SEM parameter estimates indicated that higher levels of perceived severity, self-efficacy, and cues-to-action were associated with greater depression treatment utilization, whereas perceived benefits and perceived barriers were associated with lower depression treatment utilization. CONCLUSIONS: The HBM may be useful to predict the frequency of seeking treatment by individuals for depression. However, individualized intervention strategies targeting different aspects of the HBM are needed to promote help-seeking behaviors in young adults with depression.

Evaluation of a Culturally Tailored Educational Video Intervention to Promote Bike Helmet Safety for Urban Children: A Pilot Study.

Bicycle-related falls are a significant cause of mortality and morbidity. Use of bicycle helmets substantially reduces risk of severe traumatic brain injury but compliance with this safety practice is particularly low in urban children. Given the lack of educational interventions for urban youth, our research team created a youth-informed, culturally relevant educational video on bike helmet safety, which was informed by focus groups with Baltimore City youth. This video, You Make the Call, linked the concept of use of cases to protect phones to use of helmets to protect heads and can be viewed at http://bit.ly/2Kr7UCN. The impact of the video as part of an intervention (coupled with a free helmet, fit instructions, and a parent guidance document) was tested with 20 parent-child dyads. The majority (80%) of youth (mean age 9.9 ± 1.8 years) reported not owning or wearing a helmet. At 1-month follow-up (n = 12, 60% response rate), helmet use was higher in the five youth reporting bike-riding after the intervention; 100% "always" used helmets compared to 0% preintervention. There were increases in youth reporting that parents required helmet use (35% pre vs. 67% post) and that is was possible to fall when bike-riding (60% pre vs. 92% post). These pilot results support the use of this video and educational intervention along with further evaluation in a larger sample size. This youth-informed and culturally tailored approach could be explored as a strategy to address other pediatric injury topics.

Promoting Bike Helmet Safety for Urban Children Through a Culturally Tailored Educational Video Intervention.

Bicycle-related falls are a significant cause of mortality and morbidity. Use of bicycle helmets substantially reduces risk of severe traumatic brain injury but compliance with this safety practice is particularly low in urban children. We recruited eleven 8- to 15-year-old youth to participate in focus groups to inform the creation of a video promoting helmet use. Key emerging themes included that youth were responsible for keeping themselves safe and that most youth had cell phones with cases to protect them. A video was created that linked the concept of use of cases to protect phones to use of helmets to protect heads. Soliciting information from urban youth was helpful for developing this educational video.