Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jan 30, 2025
Date Accepted: Aug 20, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Meditation App Engagement: Cross-Sectional Survey
ABSTRACT
Background:
While meditation applications (apps) are increasingly popular, there is limited understanding of how much people engage with them outside clinical trials. Accordingly, the ways in which the general population uses apps and the factors that influence their usage remain relatively unclear.
Objective:
Our aim is to explore the amount of app use and factors that predict engagement.
Methods:
We conducted a cross-sectional survey of recent meditation app users, including self-reported and app-verified (via app screenshots shared by participants) engagement information from 536 individuals in 5 English-speaking countries. User, app and user-app interaction factors were assessed. App-verified and self-reported total minutes and app-verified and self-reported minutes adjusted for app download date served as outcome variables (i.e., engagement). Associations of app use with socio-demographic factors, personality, motivations and expectations, health and wellbeing, perceived alliance with the app, and subjective perceptions of the app were examined via correlation. Factors showing significant associations were included in multivariable regressions to determine the most robust predictors of use.
Results:
Most app users reported relatively low usage, with 50% of users engaging 40 minutes or less per month (median 10.51 minutes). User factors, age, education, readiness to change, expectations for sleep, and expectations for thriving were weakly associated with three out of four outcome measures (r = 0.1 - 0.3). Appeal, perceived impact and subjective quality were moderately associated with engagement (r = 0.3 - 0.5). No mental health factors were associated with engagement. Regressions showed that only greater readiness to change, higher education level and subjective app quality uniquely related to increased engagement.
Conclusions:
Few meditation app downloaders engage beyond a minimal threshold. Our findings suggest that educated users who are receptive to new experiences and believe in the effectiveness of meditation apps are more likely to use them. Longitudinal work is needed to examine patterns of use and strengthen causal inference. Clinical Trial: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/2SHU8
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