Examining the effectiveness and equity of fully virtual therapy for college students
<b>Objective:</b> In response to increased mental health care demand among college students, universities are pursuing partnerships with telehealth companies. By examining outcomes data from TimelyCare, this article serves as an initial report on these partnerships' effectiveness, including rates of reliable improvement, remission, and equity. <b>Participants and Methods:</b> We first analyze higher education participants in virtual therapy (<i>N</i> = 7,064) for overall attainment of reliable improvement and remission on the PHQ-9 and GAD-7. We then explore potential differences in these outcomes based on participants' race/ethnicity, controlling for important covariates. <b>Results:</b> We find a majority of participants achieve reliable improvement and remission, similar to community-based studies of virtual care for adults. Furthermore, we find very few differences in outcomes by race/ethnicity. <b>Conclusion:</b> This research improves understanding of virtual therapy response among a uniquely large, racially diverse set of college students.
Authors
- Tracy Reuter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2714-0153)
- Dorothy M. Loren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1068-9337)
- Nassim Bickham
- R Booth
- Alyssa Palko
- Kelly V. Klein (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5733-7307)
Institutions
- CARE USA (US)
- American University (US)
- Systems Analytics (United States) (US)
- Transcare (NL)
- NephroCare (ES)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of American College Health
- Published
- 2025-10-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2025.2563025
- Primary Topic
- Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00