P-078 How to Inform Medical Students About Digital Mental Health Interventions? A Discrete Choice Experiment

Introduction Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) have been shown to be effective in the prevention and treatment of common mental disorders (CMDs). Low utilization - often based on lacking awareness or familiarity with DMHIs - should be addressed by user-centered, context-sensitive information strategies. Concerning information strategies, medical students are a particularly interesting target group, as they belong to a vulnerable group in terms of a relatively high prevalence of CMDs and, moreover, will be able to prescribe DMHIs as future physicians. Methods A discrete-choice experiment (DCE) was conducted to study information preferences among medical students in Germany. Attributes (information source, delivery mode, timing, recommendation, and quality criterion) were developed by a sequential mixed-method approach. Conditional logistic regression analysis was employed to estimate preference weights and relative importance of attributes (ethical approval: no. 2022-2102). Results Out of n=231 participants (70% women, age: M=24, SD=3.95), 29.49% indicated being familiar with DMHIs. Medical students preferred to receive information about DMHIs from the student council and favored being informed via social media during their pre-clinic phase or in their freshmen week. Recommendations were preferred if given by other students or health professionals. Evidence base is the preferred quality criterion. Overall, timing of information provision was the most relevant attribute. Discussion Timing appears to be the most important factor for DMHI information, which calls for action early in medical education. Conclusion Based on the findings of the DCE, a comprehensive information strategy is deduced that allows to inform medical students by their preferred information strategy.