A non-randomised pragmatic trial of a school-based group cognitive-behavioural programme for preventing depression in girls

• Published in: International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Main Authors: Heléne Zetterström Dahlqvist, Evelina Landstedt, Ylva B Almqvist, Katja Gillander Gådin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2017
• Subjects: School; depressive symptoms; real-life setting; pragmatic trial; cognitive-behavioural; sexual harassment; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic; Circumpolar Health; International Journal of Circumpolar Health; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2017.1396146; https://doaj.org/article/099f2fff4bfd4d22b29b2c3e36e6e790

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the DISA-programme in preventing depressive symptoms (DS) in adolescent girls, as implemented in a real-world school setting, accounting for baseline socioeconomic and psychosocial factors, and to investigate whether the effects of these baseline variables on DS differed between intervention participants and non-participants. In this non-randomised pragmatic trial, an electronic questionnaire was disseminated in 2011 (baseline) and 2012 (follow-up) in schools in one municipality in northern Sweden. Pupils (total n=275; intervention participants identified in the questionnaire: n=53; non-participants: n=222) were 14–15 years old at baseline. The groups were compared by means of SEM. DISA could not predict differences in DS at follow-up in this real-life setting. In the overall sample, sexual harassment victimisation (SH) at baseline was associated with DS at follow-up and the estimate for SH increased in the DISA-participants compared to the overall sample.