Improving psychological well‐being among healthcare workers during the COVID‐19 pandemic with an online mindfulness intervention: A randomised waitlist‐controlled trial

Abstract

The high prevalence of psychological problems observed among healthcare workers (HCWs) during the COVID‐19 pandemic called for interventions to safeguard their mental health. We assessed the effectiveness of a 6‐week online mindfulness‐based intervention in improving well‐being and reducing stress among HCWs in Sri Lanka. Eighty HCWs were recruited and randomised into two groups: waitlist‐control (WLC) and intervention groups. In the intervention, 1‐hour online sessions were conducted at weekly intervals and participants were encouraged to do daily home practice. Stress and well‐being were measured pre‐ and post‐intervention using the Perceived Stress Scale and WHO‐5 Well‐being Index, respectively. One‐way analysis of covariance was used to evaluate the effectiveness, in both intention‐to‐treat (ITT) and complete‐case (CC) analyses. A significantly greater improvement in well‐being occurred in the intervention arm compared to WLC on both ITT (p = .002) and CC analyses (p < .001), with medium‐to‐large effect sizes (partial η2 = .117–.278). However, the reduction in stress following the intervention was not significant compared to the WLC group on both ITT (p = .636) and CC analyses (p = .262). In the intervention arm, the median number of sessions attended by participants was 3. Low adherence to the intervention may have contributed to the apparent non‐significant effect on stress.