Design and Implementation of a Brief Digital Mindfulness and Compassion Training App for Health Care Professionals: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

Abstract

Several studies show that intense work schedules make health care professionals particularly vulnerable to emotional exhaustion and burnout.

In this scenario, promoting self-compassion and mindfulness may be beneficial for well-being. Notably, scalable, digital app–based methods may have the potential to enhance self-compassion and mindfulness in health care professionals.

In this study, we designed and implemented a scalable, digital app–based, brief mindfulness and compassion training program called “WellMind” for health care professionals. A total of 22 adult participants completed up to 60 sessions of WellMind training, 5-10 minutes in duration each, over 3 months. Participants completed behavioral assessments measuring self-compassion and mindfulness at baseline (preintervention), 3 months (postintervention), and 6 months (follow-up). In order to control for practice effects on the repeat assessments and calculate effect sizes, we also studied a no-contact control group of 21 health care professionals who only completed the repeated assessments but were not provided any training. Additionally, we evaluated pre- and postintervention neural activity in core brain networks using electroencephalography source imaging as an objective neurophysiological training outcome.

Findings showed a post- versus preintervention increase in self-compassion (Cohen <i>d</i>=0.57; <i>P</i>=.007) and state-mindfulness (<i>d</i>=0.52; <i>P</i>=.02) only in the WellMind training group, with improvements in self-compassion sustained at follow-up (<i>d</i>=0.8; <i>P</i>=.01). Additionally, WellMind training durations correlated with the magnitude of improvement in self-compassion across human participants (ρ=0.52; <i>P</i>=.01). Training-related neurophysiological results revealed plasticity specific to the default mode network (DMN) that is implicated in mind-wandering and rumination, with DMN network suppression selectively observed at the postintervention time point in the WellMind group (<i>d</i>=–0.87; <i>P</i>=.03). We also found that improvement in self-compassion was directly related to the extent of DMN suppression (ρ=–0.368; <i>P</i>=.04).

Overall, promising behavioral and neurophysiological findings from this first study demonstrate the benefits of brief digital mindfulness and compassion training for health care professionals and compel the scale-up of the digital intervention.

Trial Registration: International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number Registry ISRCTN94766568, https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN94766568