Abstract Background As the incidence of depression among college students continues to rise, traditional psychological interventions face practical challenges such as limited resources and low treatment adherence. Digital interactive cinema, as a novel medium, offers a new pathway for immersive depression therapy through its strong narrative and interactive qualities. However, the underlying mechanisms linking immersive digital interactive films to sustained treatment adherence remain unclear. This study therefore examines university students with varying degrees of depression as experimental subjects. Using empirical methods, it investigates the relationship between the immersive quality of digital interactive films and treatment adherence, aiming to provide evidence-based support for depression intervention practices. Methods The study employed a randomized controlled trial design, randomly assigning 400 college students with PHQ-9 screening scores ≥10 to either an intervention group (n = 200) or a control group (n = 200). The intervention group received a 6-week digital interactive film intervention, consisting of one session per week, with each viewing and interactive session lasting 45–60 minutes. The control group watched standard mental health education videos at the same frequency and duration. Following each weekly session, participants completed the Immersion Scale, Compliance Questionnaire, and PHQ-9 depression scale. At the conclusion of the intervention, quantitative data were systematically collected for correlation analysis. Additionally, 20 students were randomly selected from each group for in-depth interviews to comprehensively evaluate the relationship between immersion and treatment compliance, along with its underlying mechanisms. Results The correlation analysis of immersion and treatment compliance is shown in Table 1. As shown in Table 1, within the experimental group, immersion experience exhibited significant positive correlations with both the total treatment adherence score (r = 0.68) and behavioral adherence duration (r = 0.52) (p.001). Furthermore, both variables were significantly correlated with the degree of improvement in depressive symptoms (r = -0.45 to -0.51). In the control group, correlation coefficients were weaker (r = 0.15–0.25), with some failing to reach statistical significance. These findings indicate a strong association between immersion experiences, treatment participation behaviors, and intervention outcomes. Discussion Research findings indicate that the immersive experience created by digital interactive films significantly enhances treatment adherence among college students with depression. Compared to the control group, students receiving digital interactive film intervention demonstrated significant improvements in reduced depressive symptoms, heightened immersion experiences, and increased subjective willingness to undergo treatment. This provides a clear pathway for developing highly compliant digital psychological intervention programs. Future research may further refine the dimensions of immersion and explore its synergistic mechanisms with different therapeutic components, thereby providing technical support for constructing more personalized and precise digital interactive film therapeutic solutions.
Tian et al. (Sun,) studied this question.