The Effects of the App HeartBot on Stress and Emotional Well-being over a 21-day Challenge: A survey study (Preprint)

Abstract

<sec> <title>BACKGROUND</title> <p>HeartBot is an app designed to enable people 14 years and older to use Heartfulness tools to deal with daily stress and anxiety in a healthy, productive manner.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>OBJECTIVE</title> <p>Heartfulness tools have proven to be effective in a controlled environment when administered by a proctor, and this study will further explore its effectiveness.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>METHODS</title> <p>In this study, 88 participants were recruited and randomly sorted into two groups. These two groups consisted of the HeartBot intervention group (n=46) and the wait-listed control group (n=42). Pre and post surveys gained a measure of their stress levels, observed through PSS, and social-emotional well-being found through EPOCH measure of adolescent well-being before and after using the app for 21days. Data analysis was conducted using paired t-tests, Wilcox test, Kruskal test, epsilon squared, and ANOVA.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>RESULTS</title> <p>Descriptive analysis showed a statistically significant difference at pre and post-data on PSS and EPOCH scores showing a decrease in perceived stress and an improvement in emotional wellness in the HeartBot group.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>CONCLUSIONS</title> <p>Evidence from this study shows that HeartBot can be used by its users as an effective tool to manage stress and improve positive characteristics of emotional wellness.</p> </sec>

COVID-19 and Suicide

“…In the United States, we read about cases of attempted suicide-by-cop (Wall, 2020) and of murder-suicide of a couple who tested negative for COVID-19 postmortem (The Associated Press, 2020). In India, people feared spreading the infection (Thakur and Jain, 2020), not having the resources to treat symptoms if infected, or could not tolerate quarantine although they had no symptoms or proof of being infected (Iyer, 2020; Thakur and Jain, 2020). Reports included suicide by hanging, by cutting, and by jumping off the seventh floor of a hospital.…”