Development and Evaluation of Acceptability and Feasibility of a Web-Based Intervention for Patients With Bipolar Disorder in Iran: Implementation Study Publisher



Ashrafi A¹ ; Tabatabaee M¹ ; Sharifi V¹ Show Affiliations
Source: JMIR Formative Research Published:2021

Abstract

Background: Psychoeducation for bipolar disorder has a significant impact on symptoms and treatment adherence. In Iran, as a low-resource setting, infrastructural barriers, such as inadequate mental health professionals, difficulties in transportation, and costs of care, may hinder optimum delivery of this evidence-based intervention to patients. Objective: This study sought to explore the acceptability and feasibility of a web-based intervention for bipolar patients in Iran. Methods: A website has been developed as a platform for providing psychoeducational content about bipolar disorder. Patients were chosen via a convenient sampling method in 2018-2019. The main component of the intervention included streaming 7 weekly video clips after attending a single in-person meeting, as well as a medication self-monitoring application. Information was collected about the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. Results: We invited 45 patients from the day center and the outpatient clinic of Roozbeh psychiatric hospital and some private clinics in Tehran. Of the 23 patients (51%) who attended the first in-person session and provided informed consent, 14 patients dropped out during the study. While 9 patients completed the course (attended 4 or more online sessions), only 5 watched all the video sessions. The rate of adherence to the intervention and frequency of exposure to the website were much higher for those recruited from the private and outpatient clinics. Conclusions: This web-based intervention can be feasible and acceptable only for a subgroup of patients with specific educational status and socioeconomic level. © Agaah Ashrafi, Maryam Tabatabaee, Vandad Sharifi. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 17.08.2021. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Formative Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://formative.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.