A Randomised Controlled Trial of a Brief Online Mindfulness-Based Intervention in a Non-clinical Population: Replication and Extension

Abstract

Building on previous research, this study compared the effects of two brief, online mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs; with and without formal meditation practice) and a no intervention control group in a non-clinical sample. One hundred and fifty-five university staff and students were randomly allocated to a 2-week, self-guided, online MBI with or without mindfulness meditation practice, or a wait list control. Measures of mindfulness, perceived stress, perseverative thinking and anxiety/depression symptoms within were administered before and after the intervention period. Intention to treat analysis identified significant differences between groups on change over time for all measured outcomes. Participation in the MBIs was associated with significant improvements in all measured domains (all ps < 0.05), with effect sizes in the small to medium range (0.25 to 0.37, 95% CIs 0.11 to 0.56). No significant changes on these measures were found for the control group. Change in perseverative thinking was found to mediate the relationship between condition and improvement on perceived stress and anxiety/depression symptom outcomes. Contrary to our hypotheses, no differences between the intervention conditions were found. Limitations of the study included reliance on self-report data, a relatively high attrition rate and absence of a longer-term follow-up. This study provides evidence in support of the feasibility and effectiveness of brief, self-guided MBIs in a non-clinical population and suggests that reduced perseverative thinking may be a mechanism of change. Our findings provide preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of a mindfulness psychoeducation condition, without an invitation to formal mindfulness meditation practice. Further research is needed to confirm and better understand these results and to test the potential of such interventions.

Mindfulness training for healthcare professional students: A waitlist controlled pilot study on psychological and work-relevant outcomes

“…Another study found conflicting results and demonstrated improvements on psychological symptoms for both intervention arms (informal practice only and seated meditation) compared to a waitlist control (Cavanagh et al, 2018). In HCPS, one study found an informal mindfulness exercise to improve state-level stress following difficult patient encounters relative a usual care group in family medicine residents (Edgoose, Regner, & Zakletskaia, 2015).…”

Effects of a Mindfulness Meditation App on Subjective Well-Being: Active Randomized Controlled Trial and Experience Sampling Study (Preprint)

“…For longitudinal targets, we modelled three commonly-cited MT benefits: improved subjective wellbeing, attentional control [8][9][10][11]13], and interoceptive integration [31][32][33][34]. For local targets, we tested for improvements in mood, physiological arousal [24,35,36], and stress [11,22,26,37].…”

“…Moreover, a systematic review found no relationship between hours spent in MT sessions and changes in psychological distress [25], suggesting that formal meditation time is not the most important factor in efficacious MT. Indeed, a recent dismantling study of internet-based MT found no effect of formal meditation practice, although both formal and non-formal practice arms of the study outperformed a no-intervention control group [26].…”

Effectiveness of a guided online mindfulness-focused intervention in a student population: Study protocol for a randomised control trial

“…Numerous studies43 60–63 and meta-analyses64 65 found evidence for the efficacy of online mindfulness-based interventions with the focus on self-reported health variables (eg, depression, anxiety, and stress). For example, Spijkerman et al 64 compared 15 randomised control trials and showed small to medium effect sizes regarding the reduction of anxiety (g=0.22; 95% CI: 0.05 to 0.39), improvement of depression (g=0.29; 95% CI: 0.13 to 0.46), well-being (g=0.23; 95% CI: 0.09 to 0.38), and mindfulness (g=0.32; 95% CI: 0.23 to 0.42) in healthy samples as well as samples with mental disorders.…”