mHealth Mindfulness With Patients With Serious Illness and Their Caregivers
Caregiver Stress Syndrome, Anxiety
About this trial
This is an interventional treatment trial for Caregiver Stress Syndrome
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
- adults 60+
- Diagnosis of 2 or more serious illnesses (ESRD, Cancer, CHF, COPD, Liver Disease)
- Hads-A > 8 for patient or caregiver
- Blessed<6
- fluent in English
- vision and hearing does not interfere with mobile device use
- caregivers who must be 21+
- caregiver must identify as primary source of informal care for patient
- Caregiver blessed <6
- caregiver is fluent in English
- Caregiver's vision and hearing does not interfere with mobile device use.
Exclusion Criteria:
- experience with mindfulness therapy in last 2 years
- not fluent in English
- vision or hearing that impairs use of mobile device
- cognitive impairment more than 6 on Blessed.
Sites / Locations
- RWJ Barnabas Outpatient Geriatric ClinicsRecruiting
- RWJB Outpatient GeriatricsRecruiting
- Cancer Institute of New JerseyRecruiting
Arms of the Study
Arm 1
Arm 2
Experimental
Active Comparator
mindfulness coach
control - web MD
Mindfulness coach is an app that provides a training plan with 14 sequential levels, a "practice now" area with evidence-based mindfulness audio exercises, assessments using the Five-Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire Short Form (FFMQ-SF)90, and education about mindfulness an iOS- and Android-based app designed to deliver a mindfulness training course centered on Veteran's Affairs (VA) protocols. Developed by the VA's National Center for PTSD, the app provides an engaging introduction to MT, regardless of specific psychiatric illness or patient population. . To progress to the next level, the user must interact with every element. The training plan levels include psychoeducation and exercises (guided meditations and seated practices), which increase in duration as users progress. Levels 1,7 and 14 also include an assessment with the FFMQ-SF. The "practice now" area has guided meditations to practice new skills.
A a widely available health and wellness app that provides users with daily content on general health, WebMD, will serve as the attention control. Similar health-based apps have been used as controls in other mHealth psychotherapy intervention trials.100,101 The control group will be instructed to access the app 4x/week (same as intervention group) and will receive an orientation and 2 booster sessions as well. I considered other control group options including treatment as usual, but attention control was selected due to the variability of treatment as usual.