NCT03330665

Brief Summary

Physician empathy and reducing stress are major factors in attaining positive clinical outcomes for patients. Fostering empathy in medical students is particularly important as they are the future of the healthcare workforce and a trend of declining empathy during medical education may lead to decreased health care quality outcomes. Meditation may be an avenue to promote positive student attitudes including empathy, though very few studies have examined this idea through empirical research. Using validated measures, the Jefferson scale of empathy and the perceived stress scale, we seek to investigate whether use of a meditation app will be associated with higher levels of self-rated empathy and lower self-rated stress.

Trial Health

100
On Track

Trial Health Score

Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach

Enrollment
78

participants targeted

Target at P50-P75 for not_applicable

Timeline
Completed

Started Nov 2016

Longer than P75 for not_applicable

Status
completed

Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.

Trial Relationships

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Study Timeline

Key milestones and dates

Study Start

First participant enrolled

November 1, 2016

Completed
12 months until next milestone

First Submitted

Initial submission to the registry

October 31, 2017

Completed
6 days until next milestone

First Posted

Study publicly available on registry

November 6, 2017

Completed
2.8 years until next milestone

Primary Completion

Last participant's last visit for primary outcome

September 1, 2020

Completed
1 year until next milestone

Study Completion

Last participant's last visit for all outcomes

September 7, 2021

Completed
Last Updated

February 18, 2022

Status Verified

February 1, 2022

Enrollment Period

3.8 years

First QC Date

October 31, 2017

Last Update Submit

February 16, 2022

Conditions

StressEmpathy

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

  • Perceived stress scale (PSS)

    Perceived stress scale measures stress levels. 10 item scale where subjects are asked to indicate by circling how often they felt or thought a certain way on a scale of 1-4. Items are them added up- a higher score means higher stress.

    6 months

  • Jefferson scale of empathy

    Jefferson scale of Empathy measures empathy levels. 20 item scale where subjects are asked to indicate by circling how often they felt or thought a certain way about empathy related situations on a scale of 1-7. Items are them added up- a higher score means higher empathy.

    6 months

Study Arms (2)

Control

NO INTERVENTION

No meditation

Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Meditate using headspace app 3 times a week

Behavioral: Meditation

Interventions

MeditationBEHAVIORAL

Meditate 3 times a week using headspace app

Also known as: MIndfullness
Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

Age18 Years+
Sexall
Healthy VolunteersYes
Age GroupsAdult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

  • Medical students from New York Institute of Technology

You may not qualify if:

  • Not a medical student

Contact the study team to confirm eligibility.

Sponsors & Collaborators

MeSH Terms

Interventions

Meditation

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Mind-Body TherapiesComplementary TherapiesTherapeuticsSpiritual TherapiesRelaxation TherapyBehavior TherapyPsychotherapyBehavioral Disciplines and Activities

Study Design

Study Type
interventional
Phase
not applicable
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Masking
NONE
Purpose
PREVENTION
Intervention Model
PARALLEL
Sponsor Type
OTHER
Responsible Party
SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

First Submitted

October 31, 2017

First Posted

November 6, 2017

Study Start

November 1, 2016

Primary Completion

September 1, 2020

Study Completion

September 7, 2021

Last Updated

February 18, 2022

Record last verified: 2022-02