Cost-effectiveness of online positive psychology: Randomized controlled trial
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Authors
As yet, no evidence is available about the cost-effectiveness of positive psychological interventions. When offered via the Internet, these interventions may be particularly cost-effective, because they are highly scalable and do not rely on scant resources such as therapists' time. Alongside a randomized controlled trial of an online positive psychological intervention, a health-economic evaluation was conducted. Mild to moderately depressed adults seeking self-help and recruited in the general population were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 143) and a waitlisted usual care group (n = 141). Improved clinical outcomes were achieved in the intervention group (at least for depression) at higher costs. When outliers (the top 2.5%, n = 5 in intervention group, n = 2 in control group) were removed, cost-effectiveness was increased considerably. For positive psychology, economic evaluations may be a means to nudge policy decision-makers towards placing positive psychological interventions on the health agenda.
Original language | English |
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Journal | The Journal of Positive Psychology |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 5 |
Pages (from-to) | 460-471 |
Number of pages | 12 |
ISSN | 1743-9760 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 09.2014 |
- Health sciences - cost-effectiveness, Depression, economic evaluation, positive psychology, Randomized controlled trial, Well-being