Moderators of the effect of guided online self-help for people with HIV and depressive symptoms

Figures & data

Table 1. Baseline characteristics of the intervention and control group.

Characteristic	Intervention group (n = 97)	Control group (n = 91)	Total sample (n = 188)
Sex
Male	85 (88%)	81 (89%)	166 (88%)
Female	12 (12%)	10 (11%)	22 (12%)
Education
Low	20 (21%)	22 (24%)	42 (22%)
Medium	44 (45%)	33 (36%)	77 (41%)
High	33 (34%)	36 (40%)	69 (37%)
Marital status
Married or cohabiting	41 (42%)	44 (48%)	85 (45%)
Single or living without partner	56 (58%)	47 (52%)	103 (55%)
Employment status
Employed	52 (54%)	43 (47%)	95 (51%)
Not employed	45 (46%)	48 (53%)	93 (49%)
Diagnosis of AIDS
No	88 (91%)	77 (85%)	165 (88%)
Yes	9 (9%)	14 (15%)	23 (12%)
Use of ART with side effect depression^a
Often	45 (48%)	40 (45%)	85 (46%)
Rarely	27 (29%)	29 (32%)	56 (30%)
Never	22 (23%)	21 (23%)	43 (24%)
Use of psychotropic medication
No	85 (88%)	81 (89%)	166 (88%)
Yes	12 (12%)	10 (11%)	22 (12%)
Treatment of psychological symptoms last 5 years
No	47 (48%)	41 (45%)	88 (47%)
Yes	50 (52%)	50 (55%)	100 (53%)
Age (years)	45.53 (10.32)	47.12 (10.94)	46.30 (10.63)
Number of physical symptoms last 2 weeks	9.09 (3.57)	9.44 (3.66)	9.26 (3.61)
Time since HIV diagnosis (years)^b	9.35 (6.46)	10.41 (6.70)	9.87 (6.58)
Satisfaction with received support
Not at all	8 (8%)	8 (9%)	16 (9%)
Hardly	10 (10%)	14 (15%)	24 (13%)
At little	20 (21%)	19 (21%)	39 (21%)
Quite a bit	34 (35%)	34 (37%)	68 (36%)
Certainly	25 (26%)	16 (18%)	41 (22%)
Depressive symptoms (PHQ-9)	11.74 (4.74)	11.11 (4.22)	11.44 (4.50)
Anxiety symptoms (GAD-7)	9.44 (4.72)	8.24 (4.41)	8.86 (4.60)
Coping self-efficacy	28.63 (6.38)	28.75 (6.02)	28.69 (6.20)
Alcohol use (ASSIST)^c	10.29 (8.83)	7.11 (6.74)	8.75 (8.02)
Soft drugs use (ASSIST)^d	7.73 (9.19)	6.27 (6.80)	7.00 (8.09)
Hard drugs use (ASSIST)^e	8.06 (8.70)	7.96 (9.16)	8.01 (8.87)
Sedatives use (ASSIST)^f	6.20 (6.75)	8.64 (9.21)	7.38 (8.09)
Depressive thoughts (CCI)	15.27 (6.44)	15.09 (6.46)	15.18 (6.43)
Physical tension	21.14 (3.64)	21.58 (3.77)	21.36 (3.70)
Behavioral activation (BADS)	18.88 (8.93)	17.90 (8.15)	18.40 (8.55)
Number of life events	5.66 (3.32)	5.18 (3.42)	5.43 (3.37)

Notes: Data are provided as M (SD) or n (%). ART = antiretroviral therapy; ASSIST = Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test; BADS = Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale; CCI = Crandell Cognitions Inventory; GAD-7 = Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7; PHQ-9 = Patient Health Questionnaire-9.

^abased on 184 participants that use ART.

^bavailable for 187 participants.

^cbased on 169 participants that ever used alcohol.

^dbased on 120 participants that ever used soft drugs.

^ebased on 98 participants that ever used hard drugs.

^fbased on 97 participants that ever used sedatives.

Table 2. Results of LMRA investigating Time × Group × Moderator effects of an Internet-based intervention for PLWH to improve depressive symptoms (n = 188).

Moderator	Short-term effect				Long-term effect
	b	t	p	95% CI	b	t	p	95% CI
Sex	−2.43	−1.07	.29	−6.90, 2.04	1.38	0.56	.57	−3.44, 6.20
Education
Low vs. high	−2.67	−1.31	.19	−6.68, 1.34	0.08	0.04	.97	−4.29, 4.45
Medium vs. high	−1.25	−0.73	.46	−4.61, 2.11	−0.57	−0.31	.76	−4.20, 3.05
Marital status	−2.33	−1.52	.13	−5.35, 0.68	−1.60	−0.98	.33	−4.84, 1.63
Employment status	−0.17	−0.11	.91	−3.18, 2.85	2.11	1.30	.20	−1.09, 5.31
Diagnosis of AIDS	−0.95	−0.40	.69	−5.64, 3.74	−1.63	−0.65	.52	−6.61, 3.36
Use of ART with side effect depression
Often vs. never	−1.21	−0.62	.54	−5.07, 2.66	−3.10	−1.50	.14	−7.18, 0.98
Rarely vs. never	−0.15	−0.07	.94	−4.32, 4.02	−1.50	−0.67	.50	−5.91, 2.91
Use of psychotropic medication	−1.35	−0.57	.57	−6.03, 3.33	−2.08	−0.81	.42	−7.13, 2.98
Satisfaction with received support
Not at all vs. certainly	−2.26	−0.72	.48	−8.47, 3.96	0.67	0.17	.87	−7.14, 8.48
Hardly vs. certainly	−2.48	−0.95	.34	−7.62, 2.66	2.95	1.12	.27	−2.26, 8.16
A little vs. certainly	−3.19	−1.36	.18	−7.83, 1.44	−2.46	−0.98	.33	−7.38, 2.47
Quite a bit vs. certainly	−1.99	−0.94	.35	−6.15, 2.17	1.08	0.49	.63	−3.28, 5.45
Treatment psychological symptoms last 5 years	−2.41	−1.58	.12	−5.41, 0.59	−2.35	−1.43	.16	−5.59, 0.90
Baseline depression severity (PHQ-9)	−0.51	−3.18	.002*	−0.82, −0.19	−0.49	−2.62	.01*	−0.85, −0.12
Age	−0.04	−0.54	.59	−0.19, 0.11	−0.003	−0.04	.97	−0.16, 0.16
Number of physical symptoms last 2 weeks	0.29	1.38	.17	−0.13, 0.71	0.21	0.90	.37	−0.25, 0.68
Time since HIV diagnosis	0.01	0.09	.93	−0.23, 0.25	−0.23	−1.83	.07	−0.47, 0.02
Anxiety symptoms (GAD-7)	−0.19	−1.14	.26	−0.52, 0.14	−0.27	−1.48	.14	−0.63, 0.09
Coping self-efficacy	0.28	2.26	.03*	0.04, 0.53	0.26	1.95	.05	−0.004, 0.53
Alcohol use (ASSIST)	−2.33	−1.30	.20	−5.86, 1.20	−0.54	−0.28	.78	−4.35, 3.27
Soft drugs use (ASSIST)	0.08	0.05	.96	−3.16, 3.32	0.68	0.38	.70	−2.86, 4.23
Hard drugs use (ASSIST)	−0.16	−0.09	.93	−3.66, 3.34	0.08	0.04	.97	−3.75, 3.92
Sedatives use (ASSSIT)	−1.84	−1.11	.27	−5.12, 1.44	−0.75	−0.41	.68	−4.33, 2.83
Depressive thoughts (CCI)	−0.11	−0.93	.35	−0.34, 0.12	−0.08	−0.64	.52	−0.34, 0.17
Physical tension	0.11	0.55	.59	−0.29, 0.51	−0.07	−0.34	.73	−0.49, 0.34
Behavioral activation (BADS)	0.09	0.97	.33	−0.09, 0.28	−0.10	−1.02	.31	−0.30, 0.09
Number of life events	0.002	0.01	.99	−0.45, 0.45	−0.10	−0.43	.67	−0.58, 0.37

Notes: ART: antiretroviral therapy; ASSIST: Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test; BADS: Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale; CCI: Crandell Cognitions Inventory; GAD-7: Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7; LMRA: longitudinal multilevel regression analyses; PHQ-9: Patient Health Questionnaire-9; PLWH: people living with HIV.

* p < .05.