Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Nov 24, 2021
Open Peer Review Period: Nov 24, 2021 - Jan 19, 2022
Date Accepted: Mar 17, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Apr 18, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
App-Based Mindfulness for People of Color Who Experience Race-Related Stress: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
People of color (POC) who experience race-related stress are at risk of developing mental health problems, including high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. Mindfulness meditation (MM) may be especially well suited to help POC cope, given their emphasis on gaining awareness and acceptance of emotions associated with discriminatory treatment. However, MM rarely reaches POC, and the use of digital approaches could reduce this treatment gap by addressing traditional barriers to care.
Objective:
The current study will test the effectiveness of a self-directed app-based mindfulness meditation program among POC who experience elevated levels of race-related stress. Similarly, important implementation outcomes, including treatment acceptability, adherence, and satisfaction will be examined.
Methods:
Participants (n = 80) will be recruited online, sending emails to relevant listservs, and posting fliers in communities of color. Eligible participants will be block randomized to either 1) the intervention group (n = 40) where they will complete a self-directed 4-week MM program, or 2) a wait-list control condition (n = 40) that will receive access to the app after study completion. All participants will complete measures at baseline, mid-, and post-treatment. Primary outcomes include changes in stress, anxiety, and depression. Secondary outcomes include changes in mindfulness, self-compassion, rumination, emotion suppression, and experiential avoidance. Exploratory analyses will examine whether changes in primary outcomes are mediated by changes in the secondary outcomes. Finally, treatment acceptability, adherence, and satisfaction will be examined descriptively.
Results:
Recruitment began in October 2021. Data will be analyzed using multilevel modeling, a statistical methodology that accounts for the dependence among repeated observations. Considering issues of attrition in self-directed digital interventions and their potential effects on statistical significance and treatment effect sizes, we will examine data using both intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses.
Conclusions:
To our knowledge, this will be the first study to provide data on the effectiveness of an app-based mindfulness program for POC recruited based on elevated race-related stress, a high-risk population. Findings will also provide important information regarding whether a self-directed app-based MM interventions are an acceptable treatment among this underserved population. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05027113; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05027113
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.