Effects of online stigma‐reduction programme for people experiencing mental health conditions: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Despite the increased awareness of mental health‐related issues, people experiencing mental health conditions have continued to face stigmatization worldwide. The literature on help‐seeking behaviours has frequently highlighted the development of self‐stigma because of public stigma and emphasized the need to address public stigmatization faced by them. Given the increasing acceptance of digital services in recent years, this systematic review aimed to examine the effects of online and face‐to‐face anti‐stigma interventions in reducing public stigma towards people experiencing mental health conditions. A search was conducted on the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo, and ProQuest from inception of the databases to October 2020. Studies were included in this review if they have explored: (i) public stigmatization towards people of all ages with different types of mental health conditions; (ii) online interventions; and (iii) face‐to‐face interventions. Nine studies were included in this review, of which only five were included in the meta‐analysis as the remaining four had incomplete data. The meta‐analysis included an aggregate of 1203 participants while the four excluded studies included 713 participants. Results revealed that online interventions performed favourably with small effect sizes in comparison to face‐to‐face, wait‐list control, and no‐intervention groups. Results from the studies excluded from the meta‐analysis also found a significant reduction of public stigmatization with online interventions. Such findings provide insightful evidence for the effectiveness of online interventions in reducing public stigmatization. Hence, mental health organizations and groups can consider adopting online interventions suitable for their target audience and type of mental health conditions.