Digital audiovisual contents for literacy in depression: a pilot study with university students

Abstract

Abstract Depression is a global health problem; as an illness it may affect any person, independently from age, job or social condition. University students are immersed in environments of high levels of stress and responsibility, which may cause depressive symptoms. This is the context from which the relevance of the work described in this paper derives: a pilot study that was developed during the first stages of a research project aimed at assessing the efficacy of a digital audiovisual psychoeducational intervention (called DEEP) on depressive symptoms and depressive disorders in Portuguese university students. The pilot study was developed with a group of 12 Portuguese university students and included a survey by questionnaire applied to assess literacy in depression in pre- and post-intervention stages. The audiovisual content was shared on a private group on an instant messaging application for smartphones. Pre- and post-intervention results show that participants’ ability to recognize depressive symptoms, identify causes and adequate treatment options for depression was higher after watching the audiovisual content of DEEP intervention. Our work has led us to conclude that, when combined with digital resources, psychoeducational interventions arouse more interest in participants and motivation to new knowledge enhancing mental health literacy.