This paper is in the following e-collection/theme issue:

Letters to the Editor (43) Digital Mental Health Interventions, e-Mental Health and Cyberpsychology (1515) Mental Health Issues in Adolescence (442) Reviews in Digital Mental Health (243) Anxiety and Stress Disorders (1053) Depression and Mood Disorders; Suicide Prevention (1363)

Published on in Vol 24, No 3 (2022): March

Preprints (earlier versions) of this paper are available at https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/37440, first published .
Authors’ Reply to: Toward a Better Understanding of Quality Social Connections. Comment on “Quality Social Connection as an Active Ingredient in Digital Interventions for Young People With Depression and Anxiety: Systematic Scoping Review and Meta-analysis”

Authors’ Reply to: Toward a Better Understanding of Quality Social Connections. Comment on “Quality Social Connection as an Active Ingredient in Digital Interventions for Young People With Depression and Anxiety: Systematic Scoping Review and Meta-analysis”

Authors’ Reply to: Toward a Better Understanding of Quality Social Connections. Comment on “Quality Social Connection as an Active Ingredient in Digital Interventions for Young People With Depression and Anxiety: Systematic Scoping Review and Meta-analysis”

Authors of this article:

Lindsay H Dewa1, 2 Author Orcid Image ;   Lily Roberts1 Author Orcid Image ;   Emma Lawrance1, 3 Author Orcid Image ;   Hutan Ashrafian1 Author Orcid Image
Article Authors Cited by Tweetations (3) Metrics

    Letter to the Editor

    1Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

    2School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

    3Mental Health Innovations, London, United Kingdom

    Corresponding Author:

    Lindsay H Dewa, BA, MSc, PhD

    Institute of Global Health Innovation

    Imperial College London

    Reynolds Building, 3rd Floor

    London, W6 8RP

    United Kingdom

    Phone: 44 02075940815

    Email: l.dewa@imperial.ac.uk



    We welcome feedback from the authors Deng and Qin through their comment [1] on our paper “Quality Social Connection as an Active Ingredient in Digital Interventions for Young People With Depression and Anxiety: Systematic Scoping Review and Meta-analysis” [2]. They suggest that two included studies [3,4] should not be included in our review as individual studies as data extraction and quality assessment of both studies is the same, and that this impacts the quality of the meta-analysis. We have the following response. First, our review is scoping in nature, therefore we included and extracted any study that matched our inclusion criteria and appropriately extracted each study separately. Second, both studies have different designs and methodologies, and obtain different outcomes. For example, one study is a co-designed study, and the other is a qualitative study; therefore, neither study should be included in the meta-analysis itself. Third, these studies are included and discussed in the review in relation to indicators of quality social connection within digital interventions and each study finding is different. In this case, different data are presented and referenced in relation to distinct digital intervention mechanisms that facilitate quality social connection and they are appropriately presented separately. For example, the importance of anonymity is mentioned in one but not the other. Finally, we have already discussed the statistical and methodological variation within our scoping review as a potential limitation.

    Thank you for considering our response to the comment.

    Acknowledgments

    We are supported by Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London. This work was funded by a Wellcome Trust Mental Health Priority Area Active Ingredients commission awarded to LD at Imperial College London.

    Conflicts of Interest

    HA is the Chief Scientific Officer, Preemptive Medicine and Health Security at Flagship Pioneering.

    1. Deng H, Qin X. Comment on 'Quality Social Connection as an Active Ingredient in Digital Interventions for Young People With Depression and Anxiety: Systematic Scoping Review and Meta-analysis'. J Med Internet Res 2022:e36739 [FREE Full text] [CrossRef]
    2. Dewa LH, Lawrance E, Roberts L, Brooks-Hall E, Ashrafian H, Fontana G, et al. Quality Social Connection as an Active Ingredient in Digital Interventions for Young People With Depression and Anxiety: Systematic Scoping Review and Meta-analysis. J Med Internet Res 2021 Dec 17;23(12):e26584 [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]
    3. Radovic A, DeMand AL, Gmelin T, Stein BD, Miller E. SOVA: Design of a stakeholder informed social media website for depressed adolescents and their parents. J Technol Hum Serv 2018;35(3):169-182 [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]
    4. Radovic A, Gmelin T, Stein BD, Miller E. Depressed adolescents' positive and negative use of social media. J Adolesc 2017 Feb;55:5-15 [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]

    Edited by T Leung; This is a non–peer-reviewed article. submitted 21.02.22; accepted 21.02.22; published 11.03.22

    Copyright

    ©Lindsay H Dewa, Lily Roberts, Emma Lawrance, Hutan Ashrafian. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 11.03.2022.

    This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.