This study aims to examine the effects of mindfulness practice administered using a mobile app on psychological health among health care workers in Singapore.
Research has shown that health workers are particularly at risk of experiencing heightened risks of burnout and psychological symptoms when dealing with a health pandemic, including the current COVID-19 pandemic (Lai et al., 2020; Tan et al., 2020; Wu et al., 2009). The increased risk reflects an urgent need to develop feasible psychological interventions to mitigate burnout and psychological symptoms among health workers. The present study aims to examine the effects of a brief mindfulness intervention delivered using a mobile application (HeadSpace) on psychological functioning in the context of coping with the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of health workers in Singapore. A total of 80 health workers will be recruited and randomly assigned to using a mindfulness practice app or a cognitive games app daily over a period of 21 days. They will be assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and at one-month follow-up on depressive symptoms, anxiety, stress, burnout, compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, post-traumatic stress symptoms, trait mindfulness, self-compassion, sleep quality, working memory, and fear of COVID-19 infection. Results of the study will have implications on developing cost-effective interventions to mitigate psychological symptoms among health workers in the context of heightened pandemic-related stress.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
80
10-15 mins of daily mindfulness practice using HeadSpace, for 3 weeks
10-15 mins of cognitive games using Lumosity, for 3 weeks
Yle-NUS College
Singapore, Singapore
Depression
Depression subscale of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales- 21 (DASS)
Time frame: Change from Baseline to Within 7 Days Post intervention
Anxiety
Anxiety subscale of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales- 21 (DASS)
Time frame: Change from Baseline to Within 7 Days Post intervention
Fear of COVID-19
Fear of COVID-19 Scale
Time frame: Change from Baseline to Within 7 Days Post intervention
Burnout, Compassion Satisfaction, and Secondary Traumatic Stress
Professional Quality of Life Scale Version 5 (3 subscales respectively)
Time frame: Change from Baseline to Within 7 Days Post intervention
Sleep Quality
One item from Pittsburg Sleep Quality Inventory
Time frame: Change from Baseline to Within 7 Days Post intervention
Working Memory
Digit span tasks - forward and backward
Time frame: Change from Baseline to Within 7 Days Post intervention
PTSD symptoms
Posttraumatic stress disorder Checklist- Civilian Version(higher scores indicate greater PTSD symptoms)
Time frame: Change from Baseline to Within 7 Days Post intervention
Trait Mindfulness
Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (higher scores indicate greater trait mindfulness)
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Time frame: Change from Baseline to Within 7 Days Post intervention
Self-Compassion
Self-Compassion Scale (higher scores indicate greater self-compassion)
Time frame: Change from Baseline to Within 7 Days Post intervention