NCT03712319

Mindfulness App Versus Mindfulness-based Intervention for Healthcare Students

Mindfulness for Healthcare Students: Smartphone App or Face-to-face Group? A Randomized Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 154 (actual)
• Sponsor: Instituto de Investigación Hospital Universitario La Paz · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The main purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy of a mindfulness-based training app ('REM Volver a Casa') versus a regular, presence-based program (MBSR) on the reduction of anxiety and other factors related to the physician-patient relationship, in healthcare grade students.

Detailed description

Healthcare students suffer from higher levels of anxiety and depression than the general population. It compromises not only their mental health, but also the quality of care provided. Aptitudes such as empathy and self-compassion are essential to improve this deficit and overcome the well-known burnout syndrome. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program has proven to be an effective intervention for lowering stress in numerous studies. However, this intervention asks for a significant degree of personal involvement, thus the number of dropouts is often reported as a problem. New technologies might allow users to adapt training to their personal schedules. The present randomized trial aims to compare the efficacy of a mindfulness-based training delivered through a mobile application ('REM Volver a Casa'), a presence-based program (MBSR), and a control group in healthcare grade students.

Conditions

• Students

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	REM Volver a casa	The program aims to train the ability of the mind to focus attention on the present moment without judging, accepting the experience. REM is an application available for Android and iOs. It proposes a guided training through 8 stages. They contain video recordings with explanations about the fundamentals of mindfulness, audio recordings that guide practices of mindfulness, as well as suggestions to bring it into everyday life. They can be used whenever it suits the user. The app counts the progress of each participant, as well as the mood changes according to a distress scale before and after performing a formal practice. The app has been designed following the international recommendations for the development of apps (MARS guide).
BEHAVIORAL	Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program	The program aims to train the ability of the mind to focus attention on the present moment without judging, accepting the experience. MBSR is a program developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in the 1970s by Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn. MBSR uses a combination of mindfulness meditation, body awareness, and yoga to help people become more mindful. In recent years, meditation has been the subject of clinical research, that suggests it may have beneficial effects, including stress reduction, relaxation, and improvements to quality of life. While MBSR has its roots in spiritual teachings, the program itself is secular. The session is delivered to a small group of people by a certified instructor during two and a half hours, every week.

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-09-13
• Primary completion: 2019-01-01
• Completion: 2019-01-01
• First posted: 2018-10-19
• Last updated: 2019-08-08

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Spain