None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The proposed study is a 90-day intervention to evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile mindfulness meditation tool (Headspace vs. waitlist control) at reducing distress, and improving wellness, resilience, and mindfulness in two cohorts: incoming residential colleges student users, and academic and general staff. The proposed project will involve innovative intervention delivery methods utilizing a mobile phone application (app) to increase positive psychological wellbeing in naturalistic environments over time. We hypothesise that implementing mindfulness techniques will increase psychological and university wellbeing over a 90-day period and that continued use of mindfulness techniques will result in long-term positive effects on wellbeing and resilience. Approximately 400 incoming residential colleges students, who are currently enrolled at the University of Otago, and 400 academic and general staff who own and use a smartphone will be recruited via email, flyer drop, and population specific social media pages in the second week of Semester 1. All participants will be randomly assigned to either a 90-day trial of Headspace in Semester 1 or a waitlist control (receiving Headspace in Semester 2). All participants will complete an initial 10-15 min online survey of baseline measures (demographics, distress, resilience, college adjustment – students only, risk of burnout – staff only, mindfulness, self-efficacy, and experience with mindfulness). Half of all participants will be provided with a code and instructed to download their apps after the initial survey. The URL to that survey will be sent to them via text message. Use of the app will take approximately 10 minutes per day. All participants will then be followed up with a survey of all measures in the second week of Semester 2. At this point, all wait-list control participants will be invited to download the app. All participants will be sent a final survey following the end of the academic year (approx. 3rd week of November). Recruitment for the staff will continue into the 2018 academic year following an identical design. Students academic marks will be accessed with their consent to determine whether mindfulness engagement improves academic outcomes in addition to the wellbeing outcomes. Participation in this study is expected to take a maximum of 16 hours over the course of an entire semester (15 mins at baseline, follow up, and final survey: 45 minutes; daily app use for 90 days: 15 hours; total: 15.75 hours). We are recruiting a healthy, normal population of students and staff who may withdraw from participation in the project at any time. We do not anticipate any issues or problems. Previous studies of mindfulness applications in similar populations have showed benefits and no harm.
Interventions
The proposed study is a 90-day intervention to evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile mindfulness meditation tool (Headspace app vs. wait list control) at reducing distress and improving wellness, resilience, and mindfulness in two cohorts: incoming residential colleges student users, and academic and general staff at the University of Otago. The 90 days access to the app will be provided to intervention participants via the internet (either on their mobile phone or personal computer) following
The proposed study is a 90-day intervention to evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile mindfulness meditation tool (Headspace app vs. wait list control) at reducing distress and improving wellness, resilience, and mindfulness in two cohorts: incoming residential colleges student users, and academic and general staff at the University of Otago. The 90 days access to the app will be provided to intervention participants via the internet (either on their mobile phone or personal computer) following the completion of the baseline survey and will be available for them to use during the 90 days as they see fit. Headspace is a commonly available mindfulness meditation app available through your app store or online. Over the 90 days of access to Headspace the participants will have access to hundreds of hours of original meditation content that is organized into five categories: Foundation, health, relationships, performance, and Headspace pro (see below for more details). The app is structured so that participants must complete at least Foundation Level 1 before accessing other content in the app. Although Foundation 2 and 3 are not compulsory, we will recommend they be completed. These sessions are not only an introduction to mindfulness meditation but also an opportunity to get used to Headspace's style of teaching. The other packs in the series library build on what is taught in these sessions and assume that they have progressed through them. It is important to note that it is not possible to move between multiple packs while maintaining progress on each. Using feedback from our pilot study and focus groups in 2015 we will not limit participants’ access to Foundation Series, however, we will advise that users take the time to work through the Foundation Series before progressing to any chosen series. Participants will choose to use any series and may choose to stop any series at any time to start another. Participants will be encouraged to use the Headspace website to troubleshoot any queries (headspace.com). Each of the packs outlined below contain guided and unguided meditations varying in duration from 2 minutes to an hour which focus on improving the self in the topic mentioned (e.g., improving creativity), Foundation Series: Level 1 (10 sessions – 10 minute each); Level 2 (10 sessions – 10 or 15 minutes each); Level 3 (10 sessions – 10, 15 or 20 minutes each) Performance: Creativity (30 sessions); Focus (30 sessions); Happiness (10 sessions); Balance (10 sessions) Relationships: Relationships (30 sessions); Change (10 sessions); Appreciation (10 sessions); Acceptance (10 sessions) Health: Depression (30 sessions); Self-Esteem (30 sessions); Stress (30 sessions); Anxiety (30 sessions); Sleep (30 sessions); Pregnancy (30 sessions) Headspace Pro: Level 1 (10 sessions); Level 2 (10 sessions); Level 3 (10 sessions); Level 4 (10 sessions); Level 5 (10 sessions) During the information and consent process, participants will agree to allow Headspace to provide researchers with user data. This will allow us to more stringently track participants’ mindfulness meditation practice. This user data will include: UserID, Date & time of session, Session duration (e.g. 10, 15, 20 mins…), PackID (e.g. 46 = foundation level 1), Status (completed vs uncompleted), Gender (‘M’ for male or ‘F’ for female) (if provided by participant), Birthdate of user (if provided by participant), Country code, Previous meditation experience (1=novice meditator, 2=some experience, 3=proficient meditator) (if provided by participant)
Sponsors
Tamlin Conner
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Other
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
17 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Student cohort participants must be enrolled at the University of Otago and be living at one of the participating residential colleges. Staff cohort participants must be employed by the University of Otago
Exclusion criteria
Individuals who own a Blackberry or Windows Phone (who are unwilling to use the computer desktop version of the app) will be unable to participate as the app is not Blackberry or Windows Phone capable.
Outcome results
None listed