Empower@Home: Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)

Empower@Home is an online self-help intervention based on cognitive behavioral therapy principles designed to treat depressive symptoms in older adults. The intervention has three components: 9 interactive self-paced online sessions, printed workbook that goes along the online sessions for exercises and homework, and telephone coaching by a trained staff from a social service agency serving older adults. The online sessions contain entertainment elements in the form of a character-driven story of a homebound older adults, video-based psycho-educational content, voice-over instructions, interactive exercises, and weekly home practice assignments.

Participants in the waitlist control group will receive attention control through biweekly telephone-friendly visitors. Trained project staff will call participants to provide companionship, emotional support, and a friendly conversation. In addition, the callers will conduct a biweekly assessment of depressive symptoms using the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9), to mirror the biweekly in-app PHQ-9 assessments with the experimental group.