Online Mindfulness Training Improves Psychological Well-Being
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“online mindfulness interventions may be effective at improving mental health in the general population.” – Neil Bailey
Mindfulness training has been shown to improve health and well-being in healthy individuals. It has also been found to be effective for a large array of medical and psychiatric conditions, either stand-alone or in combination with more traditional therapies. One of the primary effects of mindfulness that may be responsible for many of its benefits is that it improves the physiological and psychological responses to stress.
The vast majority of the mindfulness training techniques, however, require a trained teacher. The participants must be available to attend multiple sessions at scheduled times that may or may not be compatible with their schedules and at locations that may not be convenient. As an alternative, training over the internet has been developed. This has tremendous advantages in decreasing costs, making training schedules much more flexible, and eliminating the need to go repeatedly to specific locations. But the question arises as to the effectiveness of internet training in improving psychological well-being. The research has been accumulating and it makes sense to review and summarize what has been learned.
In today’s Research News article “Effects of Mindfulness Exercise Guided by a Smartphone App on Negative Emotions and Stress in Non-Clinical Populations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8825782/ ) Wu and colleagues review, summarize, and perform a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of mindfulness training with smartphone apps for improving the psychological well-being of healthy individuals.
They identified 8 published research studies that included a total of 574 participants. They report that the published research studies found that mindfulness training on a smartphone produced small to moderate but significant reductions in negative emotions, depression and anxiety in healthy individuals.
Hence, the use of smartphone mindfulness apps improves psychological well-being.
“Online mindfulness training can enhance mindfulness, well-being, self-perceptions of emotional intelligence, and workplace performance.” – Ruby Nadler
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Twitter @MindfulResearch
Study Summary
Wu, J., Ma, Y., Zuo, Y., Zheng, K., Zhou, Z., Qin, Y., & Ren, Z. (2022). Effects of Mindfulness Exercise Guided by a Smartphone App on Negative Emotions and Stress in Non-Clinical Populations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Frontiers in public health, 9, 773296. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.773296
Abstract
Background
Studies have acknowledged that mindfulness exercise guided by a smartphone app has a positive impact on mental health and physical health. However, mindfulness guided by a smartphone app on mental health is still in its infancy stage. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis evaluating the effect of mindfulness intervention guided by a smartphone app on negative emotions and stress in a non-clinical population with emotional symptoms.
Methods
We searched major databases, namely, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang, to identify all of the relevant studies published in English or Chinese from their inception until November 9, 2021. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed with Cochrane risk-of-bias bias assessment tool. Two researchers independently conducted document retrieval, study selection, data extraction, and methodological quality evaluation.
Result
A total of eight studies were included in the study, with 574 subjects (experimental group: 348; control group: 226). A random effects model was selected to combine effect sizes. The results of the meta-analysis showed that mindfulness exercise guided by a smartphone app reduced negative emotions [standardized mean difference (SMD) = −0.232, 95% CI: −0.398 to −0.066, p = 0.006], depressive symptoms (SMD = −0.367, 95% CI: −0.596 to −0.137, p = 0.002), and anxiety symptoms (SMD = −0.490, 95% CI: −0.908 to −0.071, p = 0.022).
Conclusions
The findings indicate the potentially beneficial effect of mindfulness exercise guided by a smartphone app on symptoms of depression and anxiety among individuals in a non-clinical population with emotional symptoms. Considering the small number and overall methodological weakness of the included studies and lack of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the results should be interpreted with caution, and future rigorously designed RCTs are warranted to provide more reliable evidence.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8825782/