Association Between Improvement in Baseline Mood and Long-Term Use of a Mindfulness and Meditation App: Observational Study

Abstract

BackgroundThe use of smartphone apps to monitor and deliver health care guidance and interventions has received considerable attention recently, particularly with regard to behavioral disorders, stress relief, negative emotional state, and poor mood in general. Unfortunately, there is little research investigating the long-term and repeated effects of apps meant to impact mood and emotional state.ObjectiveWe aimed to investigate the effects of both immediate point-of-intervention and long-term use (ie, at least 10 engagements) of a guided meditation and mindfulness smartphone app on users’ emotional states. Data were collected from users of a mobile phone app developed by the company Stop, Breathe & Think (SBT) for achieving emotional wellness. To explore the long-term effects, we assessed changes in the users’ basal emotional state before they completed an activity (eg, a guided meditation). We also assessed the immediate effects of the app on users’ emotional states from preactivity to postactivity.MethodsThe SBT app collects information on the emotional state of the user before and after engagement in one or several mediation and mindfulness activities. These activities are recommended and provided by the app based on user input. We considered data on over 120,000 users of the app who collectively engaged in over 5.5 million sessions with the app during an approximate 2-year period. We focused our analysis on users who had at least 10 engagements with the app over an average of 6 months. We explored the changes in the emotional well-being of individuals with different emotional states at the time of their initial engagement with the app using mixed-effects models. In the process, we compared 2 different methods of classifying emotional states: (1) an expert-defined a priori mood classification and (2) an empirically driven cluster-based classification.ResultsWe found that among long-term users of the app, there was an association between the length of use and a positive change in basal emotional state (4% positive mood increase on a 2-point scale every 10 sessions). We also found that individuals who were anxious or depressed tended to have a favorable long-term emotional transition (eg, from a sad emotional state to a happier emotional state) after using the app for an extended period (the odds ratio for achieving a positive emotional state was 3.2 and 6.2 for anxious and depressed individuals, respectively, compared with users with fewer sessions).ConclusionsOur analyses provide evidence for an association between both immediate and long-term use of an app providing guided meditations and improvements in the emotional state.

Effects on Mood and EEG States After Meditation in Augmented Reality With and Without Adjunctive Neurofeedback

“…These and other studies (e.g., Athanas et al, 2019) suggest the feasibility and promise of meditation training apps for supporting mental health and wellness in clinical and non-clinical populations. However, 30-day retention rates for traditional mindfulness-based apps are quite low (median 4.7%; Baumel, et al, 2019), suggesting that they may be of limited long-term value for most users.…”

Stay Present with Your Phone: A Systematic Review and Standardized Rating of Mindfulness Apps in European App Stores

“…(translation: "The mindfulness app"; e.g., [36][37][38][39][40][41][57][58][59]. Fourteen apps were investigated regarding different other variables such as usability and satisfaction in non-RCT or qualitative assessments [60][61][62][63][64][65]. The mindfulness applications offered various standardized methods, including relaxation (n = 153, 80%), breathing (n = 118, 62%) and body exercises (n = 59, 31%), mindfulness (n = 117, 61%), acceptance (n = 28, 15%), and resource management (n = 4, 2%).…”

COVID-19, mobile health and serious mental illness

“…Using digital phenotyping and smartphone surveys/sensors to better monitor patients' real time, longitudinal, and dynamic experience of mental health is feasible with apps like mindLAMP from our group , Cross Check from Dr. John Kane (Ben-Zeev et al, 2017) and many others like the MONARCHA by Dr. Jakob Bardram plus many more (Bardram and Mati, 2020) These smartphone digital data streams can be used predict relapse (Barnett et al, 2018), and create personalized care plans responsive to the psychological and social environments of patients. Many commercial apps like Stop Breath and Think (Athanas et al, 2019) offer provide realtime interventions for anxiety that can be of help in addressing the widespread anxiety reactions generated by Covid-19 like crises. The United States Department of Veterans' Affairs offers a library of free mental health apps for anyone to use and benefit from.…”