The investigators had designed weekly mindfulness sessions (details see intervention below), which is free-of-charge and will be made available to general public who feel distressed during the outbreak of COVID-19. Face-to-face delivery of mindfulness interventions was not possible due to mandatory quarantine. The investigators hypothesize that this intervention is feasible and acceptable by the participants. As secondary outcomes, the investigators also hypothesize that the intervention can reduce stress, depressive and anxiety symptoms and enhance participants' sense of coherence This will be a quasi-experimental study. Participants will be invited to fill in an online informed consent and questionnaire around 2 days before each mindfulness online session and another set of questionnaire immediately after each session (see outcome measures). Participants will be identified by their e-mail and therefore serial data could be obtained.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Each weekly mindfulness session will last 45 to 60 minutes and will be held on an online platform (e.g. Zoom) via a livestream video. It will consist of short mindfulness exercise(s) of 10-30 minutes, including mindful tasting, mindful stretching, mindful walking, and body scan followed by group discussion to share, explore and make sense of the meditative experience. The intervention will be held in Cantonese.
School of public health and primary care
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
rate of recruitment
the rate of recruitment to recruit participants
Time frame: from recruitment to end of study, up to 1 year
rate of attendence
the number of attendance to the mindfulness online group
Time frame: from recruitment to end of study, up to 1 year
Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21)
Depression, anxiety and stress will be measured using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), which was validated in Chinese population with high internal consistency. The 21-item DASS-21 has three subscales designed to measure depression, anxiety and stress, with each subscale containing 7 items. Participants are required to rate each statement in DASS-21 using a 4-point Likert scale from "did not apply to me at all" to "applied to me very much or most of the time" in the prior one week. Higher scores represent higher level of psychological distress.
Time frame: on recruitment, after each online mindfulness sessions (weekly) until end of study, up to 1 year
Sense of Coherence Scale
Sense of Coherence (SOC) will be assessed by the 13-item Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-13) based on Antonovsky (1987)'s measurement of the comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness of a person's life events . Participants will rate each statement in SOC-13 on a 7-point Likert scale from "very often" to "very seldom or never". SOC-13 has been validated in Chinese population with high internal consistency. The higher the score, the higher the sense of coherence
Time frame: on recruitment, after each online mindfulness sessions (weekly) until end of study, up to 1 year
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