Wellness, Health & Prevention: Mobile Mindfulness Meditation Intervention Among Women

Feasibility and Acceptability of a Mobile Mindfulness Meditation Intervention Among Women: Intervention Study

Published on 02.06.20 in Vol 8, No 6 (2020): June in JMIR mHealth and uHealth

Traditional mindfulness-based stress reduction programs are resource intensive for providers and time- and cost-intensive for participants, but the use of mobile technologies may be particularly convenient and cost-effective for populations that are busy, less affluent, or geographically distant from skilled providers. Women in southern Louisiana live in a vulnerable, disaster-prone region and are highly stressed, making a mobile program particularly suited to this population.

This study concluded that the Headspace mobile mindfulness app was easy and cost-effective to implement and acceptable to those who participated, but few women elected to try it. The unique characteristics of this southern Louisiana population suggest that more intense promotion of the benefits of mindfulness training is needed, perhaps in conjunction with some therapist or researcher support. Several short-term benefits of the app were identified, particularly for depression and sleep.

This intervention study was published in the June issue of JMIR mHealth and uHealth Wellness, Health, and Prevention with lead authorship by Dr. Ariane Rung. The study contributors include Ariane Rung, PhD, MPH, faculty in Epidemiology; Evrim Oral, PhD, faculty in Biostatistics; Edward S Peters, DMD, SM, ScD, faculty and Director of Epidemiology in the LSU School of Public Health; Lara Berghammer, MPH from the Wounded Warrior Project, San Diego, CA.

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