2,486 research outputs found
Evaluating Mindfulness Meditation Apps
Mindfulness meditation has significant benefits for health and well-being but requires training. A wealth of mindfulness meditation apps have been developed in the last years. However, there has been limited academic work evaluating these technologies. This paper reports an auto-ethnographic and expert evaluation study of 16 most popular iPhone mindfulness apps. Findings indicate that these apps focus mostly on guided meditation with limited support for monitoring intrinsic meditation processes and measuring the effectiveness of the training. We propose a more nuanced discourse around such apps concluding with implications for design including new tools for supporting intrinsic meditation processes and bodily kinetic aspects fostering mindfulness, together with the call for developing guidelines for evaluating the effectiveness of such applications
Evaluation of Mindfulness Eating Apps
Increased HCI research has focused on mindfulness technologies, and eating practices, such as healthy eating, but limited work has explored the intersection of these two rather than separate research areas to support the design for mindfulness eating. A growing number of mobile apps in the marketplace has focused on supporting healthy eating, including those targeting mindfulness eating; however, limited HCI research has focused on evaluating them. To address this gap, we report a study evaluating 13 apps of mindfulness eating on the Apple Store informed by mindfulness eating literature and mindfulness based-eating awareness training (MB-EAT) intervention. Findings indicate that such apps track bodily sensations and emotions as well as broader aspects pertaining to healthy eating and physical activities. Outcomes also reveal that such apps tend to provide support and interventions for either mindfulness meditation or mindfulness eating meditation, albeit fewer apps support both. We conclude with design implications including novel interfaces for mindfulness eating that leverage the body, and novel digital interventions for mindfulness eating informed by MB-EAT
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mHealth: providing a mindfulness app for women with chronic pelvic pain in gynaecology outpatient clinics: qualitative data analysis of user experience and lessons learnt
OBJECTIVES: To determine whether a pre-existing smartphone app to teach mindfulness meditation is acceptable to women with chronic pelvic pain (CPP) and can be integrated into clinical practice within the National Health Service (NHS) CPP pathways, and to inform the design of a potential randomised clinical trial.
DESIGN: A prestudy patient and public involvement (PPI) group to collect feedback on the acceptability of the existing app and study design was followed by a three-arm randomised feasibility trial. In addition, we undertook interviews and focus groups with patients and staff to explore app usability and acceptability. We also obtained participant comments on the research process, such as acceptability of the study questionnaires.
SETTING: Two gynaecology clinics within Barts Health NHS, London, UK.
PARTICIPANTS: Patients with CPP lasting ≥6 months with access to smartphone or personal computer and understanding of basic English.
INTERVENTION: The intervention was mindfulness meditation content plus additional pain module delivered by a smartphone app. Active controls received muscle relaxation content from the same app. Passive (waiting list) controls received usual care.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Themes on user feedback, app usability and integration, and reasons for using/not using the app.
RESULTS: The use of the app was low in both active groups. Patients in the prestudy PPI group, all volunteers, were enthusiastic about the app (convenience, content, portability, flexibility, ease of use). Women contributing to the interview or focus group data (n=14), from a 'real world' clinic (some not regular app users), were less positive, citing as barriers lack of opportunities/motivation to use the app and lack of familiarity and capabilities with technology. Staff (n=7) were concerned about the potential need for extra support for them and for the patients, and considered the app needed organisational backing and peer acceptance.
CONCLUSION: The opinions of prestudy PPI volunteers meeting in their private time may not represent those of patients recruited at a routine clinic appointment. It may be more successful to codesign/codevelop an app with typical users than to adapt existing apps for use in real-world clinical populations.
TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN10925965
The utility of home-practice in mindfulness-based group interventions: a systematic review
A growing body of research supports the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). MBIs consider home-practice as essential to increasing the therapeutic effects of the treatment. To date however, the synthesis of the research conducted on the role of home-practice in controlled MBI studies has been a neglected area. This review aimed to conduct a narrative synthesis of published controlled studies, evaluating mindfulness-based group interventions, which have specifically measured home-practice. Empirical research literature published until June 2016 was searched using five databases. The search strategy focused on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), and home-practice. Included studies met the following criteria: controlled trials, participants 18 years and above, evaluations of MBSR or MBCT, utilised standardised quantitative outcome measures and monitored home-practice using a self-reported measure. Fourteen studies met the criteria and were included in the review. Across all studies, there was heterogeneity in the guidance and resources provided to participants and the approaches used for monitoring home-practice. In addition, the guidance on the length of home-practice was variable across studies, which indicates that research studies and teachers are not adhering to the published protocols. Finally, only seven studies examined the relationship between home-practice and clinical outcomes, of which four found that home-practice predicted improvements on clinical outcome measures. Future research should adopt a standardised approach for monitoring home-practice across MBIs. Additionally, studies should assess whether the amount of home-practice recommended to participants is in line with MBSR/MBCT manualised protocols. Finally, research should utilise experimental methodologies to explicitly explore the relationship between home-practice and clinical outcomes
Pilot Evaluation of the Stop, Breathe & Think Mindfulness App for Student Clients on a College Counseling Center Waitlist
Objectives: College counseling centers face significant challenges meeting the mental health needs of their students and waitlists are common. Mobile apps offer a promising solution to increase access to resources while students wait for services. Methods: This pilot randomized controlled trial evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of a publicly available mindfulness app. Students on a counseling center waitlist (n=23) were randomized to use the app or not, with assessments completed over four weeks. Results: Recruitment over three semesters was slow, leading to an underpowered trial. Participants reported high satisfaction and moderate app usage. Very preliminary support was found for potential app efficacy relative to the control condition, particularly for depression, anxiety, and overall distress. Weaker, mixed effects were found for mindfulness and values processes. Conclusions: Overall, these results provide mixed findings suggesting the potential benefits, but also challenges in using a mindfulness app for students waiting to receive counseling services
Resonating Experiences of Self and Others enabled by a Tangible Somaesthetic Design
Digitalization is penetrating every aspect of everyday life including a
human's heart beating, which can easily be sensed by wearable sensors and
displayed for others to see, feel, and potentially "bodily resonate" with.
Previous work in studying human interactions and interaction designs with
physiological data, such as a heart's pulse rate, have argued that feeding it
back to the users may, for example support users' mindfulness and
self-awareness during various everyday activities and ultimately support their
wellbeing. Inspired by Somaesthetics as a discipline, which focuses on an
appreciation of the living body's role in all our experiences, we designed and
explored mobile tangible heart beat displays, which enable rich forms of bodily
experiencing oneself and others in social proximity. In this paper, we first
report on the design process of tangible heart displays and then present
results of a field study with 30 pairs of participants. Participants were asked
to use the tangible heart displays during watching movies together and report
their experience in three different heart display conditions (i.e., displaying
their own heart beat, their partner's heart beat, and watching a movie without
a heart display). We found, for example that participants reported significant
effects in experiencing sensory immersion when they felt their own heart beats
compared to the condition without any heart beat display, and that feeling
their partner's heart beats resulted in significant effects on social
experience. We refer to resonance theory to discuss the results, highlighting
the potential of how ubiquitous technology could utilize physiological data to
provide resonance in a modern society facing social acceleration.Comment: 18 page
From Ancient Contemplative Practice to the App Store: Designing a Digital Container for Mindfulness
Hundreds of popular mobile apps today market their ties to mindfulness. What
activities do these apps support and what benefits do they claim? How do
mindfulness teachers, as domain experts, view these apps? We first conduct an
exploratory review of 370 mindfulness-related apps on Google Play, finding that
mindfulness is presented primarily as a tool for relaxation and stress
reduction. We then interviewed 15 U.S. mindfulness teachers from the
therapeutic, Buddhist, and Yogic traditions about their perspectives on these
apps. Teachers expressed concern that apps that introduce mindfulness only as a
tool for relaxation neglect its full potential. We draw upon the experiences of
these teachers to suggest design implications for linking mindfulness with
further contemplative practices like the cultivation of compassion. Our
findings speak to the importance of coherence in design: that the metaphors and
mechanisms of a technology align with the underlying principles it follows.Comment: 10 pages (excluding references), 4 figures. To appear in the
Proceedings of DIS '20: Designing Interactive Systems Conference 202
Restortive Effects of Meditation Apps
We have investigated two different smartphone meditation apps to determine if they have any effects on stress and check if they are a viable tool that users can engage with to cope with stress during a work break. The dependent variables being measured include affective and cognitive restoration. The control group performed a coloring activity using a mandala figure. The experimental conditions engaged in app guided meditation through either 10% Happier or Calm. Both are health apps that are intended to help users practice a variety of mindfulness meditation exercises and help build healthy habits. This research focused on a specific form of meditation known as mindfulness meditation for gratitude, afterward we analyzed the findings.
Previous workplace mindfulness intervention trials have focused on reducing psychological stress, with limited empirical evidence showing that mindfulness training leads to improvements in the other domains, such as affective and cognitive processes. Research on mobile meditation apps may have been limited by ceiling effects given that previous research did not attempt to induce stress and fatigue prior to intervention. The vigilance task has been used to reduce the occurrence of the ceiling effect, it has the purpose of inducing stress and cognitive fatigue prior to intervention. We ran participants through the experiment then measure and analyze their data to see if stress reduction benefits of mindfulness-based meditation for gratitude can effectively restore stress levels once induced. Benefits associated with meditation include an improved capacity to cope with stressful situations and enhanced attention regulation which are key performance indicators across many domains.
First participants took the Big Five Personality test. Then completed a baseline affective and cognitive assessment (ACA), which included the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the shortened version of the Dundee Stress State Questionnaire, and the N-back test. Next, participants completed the vigilance task, followed by another ACA. Participants were then randomly assigned to complete a coloring activity, 10% Happier, or Calm followed by an ACA. Last, participants in the experimental conditions completed the System Usability Scale.
Application: Everyday life involves cognitive demands that can be stressful and decrease performance, especially for workers and college students whose performance is vital within their domains. This research investigates the potential of mindfulness meditation apps\u27 ability to restore cognitive and affective processes once depleted
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