Effectiveness of online mindfulness interventions on medical students’ mental health: a systematic review

Abstract

Background Medical school typically presents students with a combination of academic and personal stressors that may lead to substandard mental health wellbeing. Meditation practices such as mindfulness facilitate a greater awareness of one's thoughts and feelings, thereby decreasing emotional reactivity. The use of mindfulness-based interventions delivered online has considerable potential in fostering self-care and helping medical students to handle mental health challenges. We examined the available evidence on the use of online mindfulness interventions in order to determine whether they are feasible and effective for improving medical students’ mental health. Methods We performed a systematic review guided by PRISMA guidelines and utilised the following databases: ProQuest, Medline, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, IEEE Explore, Cochrane, and CINAHL. The key search terms used include mindfulness, cognitive behavioural therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, online, web, virtual, internet cyber, app, medical students, residency students, and residents. English-language articles published in the last ten years that described online interventions for medical students or residents were included in the review. Results Two studies describing the impact of online mindfulness interventions on medical students’ mental health were identified. Research in this domain is nascent; available qualitative and quantitative evidence suggests benefits in self-compassion, perceived stress, cognitive skill use, mindfulness, creating coping mechanisms, and greater awareness of emotions and feelings. There was no evidence of the effectiveness of online mindfulness interventions on depression, anxiety and burnout. There was, however, general low program usage and participation tended to diminish near the conclusion of the interventions. Conclusions The evidence found in the systematic review exhibits the potential for online mindfulness interventions to be effective in addressing some mental health challenges of medical students. There was insufficient evidence to support the use of online mindfulness interventions for burnout, depression, and anxiety. Longitudinal studies with randomised controlled trials are required to generate stronger and robust evidence.

Effectiveness of Mindfulness Skills on Self-Efficacy and Suicidal Ideation among First-Year Nursing Students with Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms during COVID-19 Pandemic

“…the high population density in cities, where many cases of infection aggravated obsessive-compulsive symptoms during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This finding was in line withYogeswaran, & El Morr, (2021). They indicated that the number of females in various nursing colleges throughout the world was greater than the number of males.…”

Medical Student Experiences of Engaging in a Psychological Flexibility Skill Training App for Burnout and Well-being: Pilot Feasibility Study

“…The stress of medical training can have adverse effects on students' psychological health [1][2][3]. Worldwide, medical students are at an elevated risk of psychological ill health compared with the general population [1], demonstrating high prevalence of burnout (44.2% [4]), depression (27.2% [2]), and suicidal ideation (11.1% [2]). Burnout risk increases as training progresses [5] and can persist throughout a physician's professional life [6].…”

“…The findings support the feasibility of implementing this app in a larger efficacy trial and provide user experience feedback that could be used to improve the intervention and strengthen engagement. Intervention development was driven by research suggesting the relevance of Psychological Flexibility skills to medical students with respect to burnout and well-being [6,[47][48][49][50] and the potential benefits of app-delivered psychological skill training for this group [1,6,12,[26][27][28][29]. Although this is early-phase work, the study provides preliminary support for the feasibility of delivering an ACTraining intervention to medical students using a stand-alone app and supports the value of further evaluation of this approach in burnout prevention and well-being research.…”

“…The increased interest in medical student psychological health has resulted in a growing number of studies evaluating individual skill-building interventions [ 3 ]. A notable gap in this emerging field is the absence of studies evaluating the delivery of such interventions using stand-alone smartphone apps [ 1 , 3 ]. Although the preliminary feasibility of app-delivered interventions (eg, mindfulness) has been demonstrated among small samples of medical residents [ 22 , 23 ], there are no studies evaluating feasibility among medical students.…”

“…Although the preliminary feasibility of app-delivered interventions (eg, mindfulness) has been demonstrated among small samples of medical residents [ 22 , 23 ], there are no studies evaluating feasibility among medical students. Medical students use smartphones frequently and are accustomed to engaging with technology [ 1 , 24 , 25 ] and, thus, app-delivered interventions have the potential to be accessible [ 1 , 26 ] and scalable [ 12 ]. Apps could facilitate medical students’ access to psychological skill training anytime and anywhere [ 27 ], which is particularly important when the availability of psychological health care personnel is limited or face-to-face delivery is not practical.…”