Table 3.
Baseline Characteristics at the Patient Level for Mental Health
| Control vs. interventions combined | Individual intervention arms | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | Control | Treatment | SMD^ | Consequences for self | Consequences for others | Social norms | Combination of all nudges | |
| Measure | N = 9420* | N = 1641* | N = 7779* | N = 1666* | N = 2305* | N = 2250* | N = 1558* | |
| Age | 50.0 (16.0) | 50.1 (15.9) | 50.0 (16.0) | 0.005 | 49.5 (16.2) | 51.4 (16.2) | 49.4 (15.9) | 49.3 (15.8) |
| Gender† | 0.041 | |||||||
| Female | 1848 (19.6%) | 300 (18.3%) | 1548 (19.9%) | 403 (24.2%) | 477 (20.7%) | 362 (16.1%) | 306 (19.6%) | |
| Race | 0.069 | |||||||
| White | 7,240 (76.9%) | 1,251 (76.2%) | 5,989 (77.0%) | 1,289 (77.4%) | 1,823 (79.1%) | 1,730 (76.9%) | 1,147 (73.6%) | |
| American Indian or Alaska Native | 147 (1.6%) | 19 (1.2%) | 128 (1.6%) | 25 (1.5%) | 37 (1.6%) | 37 (1.6%) | 29 (1.9%) | |
| Asian | 140 (1.5%) | 27 (1.6%) | 113 (1.5%) | 21 (1.3%) | 33 (1.4%) | 34 (1.5%) | 25 (1.6%) | |
| Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander | 98 (1.0%) | 12 (0.7%) | 86 (1.1%) | 12 (0.7%) | 29 (1.3%) | 25 (1.1%) | 20 (1.3%) | |
| Black or African American | 436 (4.6%) | 83 (5.1%) | 353 (4.5%) | 69 (4.1%) | 96 (4.2%) | 101 (4.5%) | 87 (5.6%) | |
| More than one race | 188 (2.0%) | 33 (2.0%) | 155 (2.0%) | 30 (1.8%) | 42 (1.8%) | 47 (2.1%) | 36 (2.3%) | |
| Unknown | 1171 (12.4%) | 216 (13.2%) | 955 (12.3%) | 220 (13.2%) | 245 (10.6%) | 276 (12.3%) | 214 (13.7%) | |
| Ethnicity | 0.020 | |||||||
| Hispanic or Latino | 458 (4.9%) | 78 (4.8%) | 380 (4.9%) | 86 (5.2%) | 107 (4.6%) | 99 (4.4%) | 88 (5.6%) | |
| Not Hispanic or Latino | 7766 (82.4%) | 1346 (82.0%) | 6420 (82.5%) | 1351 (81.1%) | 1970 (85.5%) | 1846 (82.0%) | 1253 (80.4%) | |
| Unknown | 1196 (12.7%) | 217 (13.2%) | 979 (12.6%) | 229 (13.7%) | 228 (9.9%) | 305 (13.6%) | 217 (13.9%) | |
| Rurality | 0.101 | |||||||
| Rural | 2473 (26.3%) | 492 (30.0%) | 1981 (25.5%) | 443 (26.6%) | 618 (26.8%) | 581 (25.8%) | 339 (21.8%) | |
| Missing | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| VA service connection | 0.064 | |||||||
| At least 50% | 5920 (62.8%) | 1073 (65.4%) | 4847 (62.3%) | 1092 (65.5%) | 1489 (64.6%) | 1334 (59.3%) | 932 (59.8%) | |
| Depression diagnosis in the prior two years | 0.049 | |||||||
| Yes | 5663 (60.1%) | 1019 (62.1%) | 4644 (59.7%) | 1003 (60.2%) | 1442 (62.6%) | 1270 (56.4%) | 929 (59.6%) | |
| PTSD diagnosis in the prior two years | 0.071 | |||||||
| Yes | 5221 (55.4%) | 957 (58.3%) | 4264 (54.8%) | 902 (54.1%) | 1327 (57.6%) | 1210 (53.8%) | 825 (53.0%) | |
| Substance use disorder diagnosis in the prior two years | 0.037 | |||||||
| Yes | 2627 (27.9%) | 480 (29.3%) | 2147 (27.6%) | 374 (22.4%) | 601 (26.1%) | 754 (33.5%) | 418 (26.8%) | |
| Elixhauser comorbidity score | 14.7 (16.0) | 15.5 (16.4) | 14.5 (15.9) | 0.057 | 14.1 (15.8) | 15.2 (16.0) | 14.9 (16.5) | 13.5 (14.9) |
| Prior visits‡ | 5.5 (7.8) | 5.4 (6.8) | 5.5 (8.0) | − 0.012 | 6.0 (8.9) | 5.3 (7.0) | 5.0 (7.7) | 5.9 (8.7) |
^SMD, standardized mean differences
*Mean (SD); n (%)
†Self-identified gender as indicated in the VA electronic health record, with missing values imputed with gender
‡Number of prior visits for the patient at the provider’s clinic location in the past 2 years