Can an internet-based program for the prevention and early intervention in eating disorders facilitate access to conventional professional healthcare?

Background: The majorities of individual suffering from eating disorders do not seek or receive adequate professional treatment. Internet-based approaches promise to facilitate access to conventional healthcare by providing an easy-access, low-threshold contact.

Aim: The current study investigated whether an Internet-based program for the prevention and early intervention for eating disorders (ProYouth) may contribute to the actual and intended uptake of professional care.

Effectiveness and Cost-effectiveness of School-based Dissemination Strategies of an Internet-based Program for the Prevention and Early Intervention in Eating Disorders: A Randomized Trial.

Only little is known about costs and effects (i.e., success) of dissemination strategies, although cost-effective dissemination strategies are crucial for the transfer of interventions into routine care.

Effectiveness of an Internet-based preparation for psychosomatic treatment: Results of a controlled observational study.

Objective: Patients often have to sustain long waiting periods between the time they first apply for psychotherapy and the actual uptake of the treatment. To support patients who are on a wait-list for inpatient psychosomatic treatment an Internet-based preparatory treatment (VORSTAT) was developed. In a randomized controlled trial, VORSTAT proved to increase treatment motivation prior to intake and to accelerate the accommodation phase at the beginning of inpatient treatment.

[Implementation and dissemination of an internet-based program for prevention and early intervention in eating disorders].

Objective: The study reports on the implementation and dissemination of an internet-based program for prevention and early intervention in eating disorders (ProYouth).

Methods: The program consists of several modules that can be flexibly combined by users depending on their individual needs for support. The uptake and utilization of the online intervention, user characteristics, as well as the estimated amount of required resources to maintain the program are analyzed.