Abstract summary 

To examine the effectiveness of Self-Help Plus (SH+) as an intervention for alleviating stress levels and mental health problems among healthcare workers.This was a prospective, two-arm, unblinded, parallel-designed randomised controlled trial. Participants were recruited at all levels of medical facilities within all municipal districts of Guangzhou. Eligible participants were adult healthcare workers experiencing psychological stress (10-item Perceived Stress Scale scores of ≥15) but without serious mental health problems or active suicidal ideation. A self-help psychological intervention developed by the World Health Organization in alleviating psychological stress and preventing the development of mental health problems. The primary outcome was psychological stress, assessed at the 3-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes were depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, insomnia, positive affect (PA) and self-kindness assessed at the 3-month follow-up.Between November 2021 and April 2022, 270 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned to either SH+ ( = 135) or the control group ( = 135). The SH+ group had significantly lower stress at the 3-month follow-up ( = -1.23, 95% CI = -2.36, -0.10, = 0.033) compared to the control group. The interaction effect indicated that the intervention effect in reducing stress differed over time ( = -0.89, 95% CI = -1.50, -0.27, = 0.005). Analysis of the secondary outcomes suggested that SH+ led to statistically significant improvements in most of the secondary outcomes, including depression, insomnia, PA and self-kindness.This is the first known randomised controlled trial ever conducted to improve stress and mental health problems among healthcare workers experiencing psychological stress in a low-resource setting. SH+ was found to be an effective strategy for alleviating psychological stress and reducing symptoms of common mental problems. SH+ has the potential to be scaled-up as a public health strategy to reduce the burden of mental health problems in healthcare workers exposed to high levels of stress.

Authors & Co-authors:  Li Luo Guo Zhang Mo Wu Xin Shang Cai Wang Chen He Zheng Huang Xu Lau Gu Hall

Study Outcome 

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