Smartphone Monitoring of Participants’ Engagement With Home Practice During Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: Observational Study

Parsons, Christine E.; Madsen, Maria A; Jensen, Kasper Løvborg; Kæseler, Simon; Fjorback, Lone Overby; Piet, Jacob; Roepstorff, Andreas; Linehan, Conor

doi:10.2196/14467

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Specifically, mindful parenting (ie, moment-to-moment awareness of the parent-child relationship) may reduce parental stress and promote family well-being [ 6 , 16 ]. However, it is unclear how formal (ie, purposeful or dedicated time) or informal (ie, weaving mindfulness into existing routines such as dishwashing) mindfulness is required to yield positive outcomes [ 17 , 18 ]. Mindfulness intervention dosage has wide variability reported anywhere from 9 to 27 hours [ 5 ], 45 minutes to 2 hours delivered over 3 to 12 sessions [ 19 ], and 4.5 to 24 hours [ 20 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Brief mindfulness interventions have also become increasingly popular with the rise of commercially available mindfulness meditation apps and other technologies [ 22 - 25 ]. Both commercial and research-developed mobile apps that help participants learn, practice, and monitor mindfulness activities [ 17 , 18 , 25 , 26 ] may increase opportunities to learn and practice mindfulness or meditation (hereinafter collectively referred to as mindfulness) across diverse audiences compared with traditional face-to-face programs [ 27 ], and successful coping strategies may be deployed in real time in real-world conditions to mitigate the deleterious effects of parenting stress [ 2 , 5 , 28 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Digital Prompts to Increase Engagement With the Headspace App and for Stress Regulation Among Parents: Feasibility Study

Militello¹,

Sobolev²,

Okeke³

et al. 2022

JMIR Form Res

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Background Given the interrelated health of children and parents, strategies to promote stress regulation are critically important in the family context. However, the uptake of preventive mental health is limited among parents owing to competing family demands. Objective In this study, we aim to determine whether it is feasible and acceptable to randomize digital prompts designed to engage parents in real-time brief mindfulness activities guided by a commercially available app. Methods We conducted a 30-day pilot microrandomized trial among a sample of parents who used Android smartphones. Each day during a parent-specified time frame, participants had a 50% probability of receiving a prompt with a message encouraging them to engage in a mindfulness activity using a commercial app, Headspace. In the 24 hours following randomization, ecological momentary assessments and passively collected smartphone data were used to assess proximal engagement (yes or no) with the app and any mindfulness activity (with or without the app). These data were combined with baseline and exit surveys to determine feasibility and acceptability. Results Over 4 months, 83 interested parents were screened, 48 were eligible, 16 were enrolled, and 10 were successfully onboarded. Reasons for nonparticipation included technology barriers, privacy concerns, time constraints, or change of mind. In total, 80% (8/10) of parents who onboarded successfully completed all aspects of the intervention. While it is feasible to randomize prompt delivery, only 60% (6/10) of parents reported that the timing of prompts was helpful despite having control over the delivery window. Across the study period, we observed higher self-reported engagement with Headspace on days with prompts (31/62, 50% of days), as opposed to days without prompts (33/103, 32% of days). This pattern was consistent for most participants in this study (7/8, 87%). The time spent using the app on days with prompts (mean 566, SD 378 seconds) was descriptively higher than on days without prompts (mean 225, SD 276 seconds). App usage was highest during the first week and declined over each of the remaining 3 weeks. However, self-reported engagement in mindfulness activities without the app increased over time. Self-reported engagement with any mindfulness activity was similar on days with (40/62, 65% of days) and without (65/103, 63% of days) prompts. Participants found the Headspace app helpful (10/10, 100%) and would recommend the program to others (9/10, 90%). Conclusions Preliminary findings suggest that parents are receptive to using mindfulness apps to support stress management, and prompts are likely to increase engagement with the app. However, we identified several implementation challenges in the current trial, specifically a need to optimize prompt timing and frequency as a strategy to engage users in preventive digital mental health.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Prompts to Increase Engagement With the Headspace App and for Stress Regulation Among Parents: Feasibility Study

Militello¹,

Sobolev²,

Okeke³

et al. 2022

JMIR Form Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the current study, home practice information was obtained from practice logs (via app or printed copy) and checkins during sessions. More participants preferred the app log, and others have found smartphone apps to be useful for obtaining home practice information (Parsons et al, 2020). While feedback about check-ins during sessions was positive, not all participants shared during check-ins.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Mindfulness-Based Intervention for University Students: A Feasibility Study

Dolbier

Conder²,

Guiler³

et al. 2022

BHAC

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Background: Koru is a 4-week group mindfulness-based intervention that previously demonstrated psychological benefits in university students through its offering via a counseling center (Greeson, Juberg, Mayatan, James, & Rogers, 2014). Aim: This study examined the feasibility of Koru offered universally to students via collaborative outreach (i.e., student interest, attendance, adverse events, participant acceptability, and participant willingness to complete assessments). Method: Across five semesters, Koru was advertised via flyers, emails to student organizations and faculty and staff, and counseling center referrals at a southeastern public university with 29,000-students. Interested students were randomly assigned to Koru or a waitlist. In-person Koru groups took place in classrooms on campus. Assessments included practice logs, program evaluations, and pre- and post-intervention surveys measuring mindfulness and psychological symptoms. Results: Interest was sufficient to offer 2-3 groups per semester (171 students). Of those assigned to Koru, 44.4% completed 3-4 sessions and 34.9% did not attend any sessions. The adverse event rate was 2.9%. Evaluations were positive and all participants attending the last session completed them. The response rate was 29.0% for log completion and 17.9% for survey completion. Conclusion: Results support student interest in, and acceptability of Koru offered to all students on campus outside of a counseling center. Data collection was challenging.

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“…Future studies should consider using software to automatically record intervention adherence and allow for the investigation of dose-dependent effects of MBSR (e.g. Parsons et al, 2020;Wahbeh et al, 2014). They should also include multiple assessment points of state emotion regulation to detect potential fluctuation throughout the intervention period.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of an Online Mindfulness Intervention on Emotion Regulation upon Autobiographical Memory Retrieval in Depression Remission: a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

2022

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Objectives Maladaptive emotional processing of autobiographical memories is a key feature of depression that may persist during depressive remission. The primary objective of the present study was to assess the effects of an online mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) intervention on emotion regulation upon everyday autobiographical memory retrieval in individuals with remitted depression. Methods We conducted a pilot randomized controlled trial in which students (76.4% female; mean age 22.26) with remitted depression were allocated to an 8-week online MBSR program (n = 28) or a waitlist-control condition (n = 27). The primary outcome was self-reported employment of five emotion regulation strategies and non-reactivity upon everyday retrieval of involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memories recorded in a memory diary and was measured at baseline and approximately 11 weeks postrandomization. Intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) analyses were performed. Results Participants in the MBSR condition showed increases in non-reactivity irrespective of memory retrieval mode (ITT: d = 1.04, p = .010; PP: d = 1.58, p = .015), and increased use of cognitive reappraisal in response to involuntary memories (ITT: d = 0.41, p = .051; PP: d = − 0.62, p = .032) compared to the waitlist-control condition. Analyses of secondary outcomes showed additional effects for trait mindfulness and trait cognitive reappraisal, as well as depression symptoms and trait thought suppression. Conclusion These results provide preliminary evidence for the utility of using an online mindfulness program for improving emotion regulation upon autobiographical memory retrieval during depression remission. Retrospective Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05121116.

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Smartphone Monitoring of Participants’ Engagement With Home Practice During Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: Observational Study

Cited by 9 publications

References 40 publications

Digital Prompts to Increase Engagement With the Headspace App and for Stress Regulation Among Parents: Feasibility Study

Digital Prompts to Increase Engagement With the Headspace App and for Stress Regulation Among Parents: Feasibility Study

A Mindfulness-Based Intervention for University Students: A Feasibility Study

The Effects of an Online Mindfulness Intervention on Emotion Regulation upon Autobiographical Memory Retrieval in Depression Remission: a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

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