Stress Free Now in a Corporate Call Center (SFN)

Psychosocial stress increases the risk for a multitude of diseases, including obesity, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. Stress may also result in increased utilization of health care services. In the workplace, stress leads to emotional exhaustion, job dissatisfaction, lower productivity and impaired performance. Stress management programs and those based on mindfulness meditation have gained popularity in recent years. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of an 8-week web-based mindfulness stress reduction program and its effectiveness in reducing work related stress and improving well-being in a large corporate call center.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Stress, Psychological
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Web-based Stress Management Program (WSM); Behavioral: Group Support (WSMg1); Behavioral: Clinical Expert Support (WSMg2)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 161
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Ohio
    • Cleveland, Ohio, United States, 44195
      • Cleveland Clinic

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Frontline employee of large corporate call center
• Internet access

Exclusion Criteria:

• Manager or supervisor of large corporate call center

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: CTL; Wait-list control, no intervention. Intervention offered after week 16 and outcomes are collected.
Experimental: Web-based stress management (WSM); Subjects randomized to this group will receive access to the WSM program to complete on their own time.	Behavioral: Web-based Stress Management Program (WSM); The intervention, developed by the Cleveland Clinic, is an 8-week online, interactive, educational program based on mindfulness meditation. Briefly, each week subjects are introduced to the (1) weekly audio introduction to the mindfulness theme or particular meditation technique of the week, (2) weekly audio meditation techniques for relaxation, (3) daily articles providing scientific evidence and merits of meditation, and (4) bi-weekly email reminders. The introductory talks and meditation exercises were also provided on compact discs (CD) in mp3 format.; Other Names: Stress Free Now
Experimental: WSMg1; Subjects randomized to this group will receive access to WSM with group support. They will meet once per week for 1 hour. Meeting will be led by one of their peers who is a non-expert facilitator.	Behavioral: Web-based Stress Management Program (WSM); The intervention, developed by the Cleveland Clinic, is an 8-week online, interactive, educational program based on mindfulness meditation. Briefly, each week subjects are introduced to the (1) weekly audio introduction to the mindfulness theme or particular meditation technique of the week, (2) weekly audio meditation techniques for relaxation, (3) daily articles providing scientific evidence and merits of meditation, and (4) bi-weekly email reminders. The introductory talks and meditation exercises were also provided on compact discs (CD) in mp3 format.; Other Names: Stress Free Now; Behavioral: Group Support (WSMg1); Subjects will meet once per week for 1 hour during the 8-week duration and practice 2-minutes of deep breathing exercises, listen to 10-minutes audio recording of the weekly lesson and practice 20-30 minutes guided meditation exercise. The remainder of the time will be used to foster sharing experiences and answering specific questions related to the weekly lesson.
Experimental: WSMg2; Subjects randomized to this group will receive access to WSM and group support and clinical expert support. They will attend 4 weekly support groups led by a peer non-expert facilitator and 4 weekly support groups led by a clinical psychologist.	Behavioral: Web-based Stress Management Program (WSM); The intervention, developed by the Cleveland Clinic, is an 8-week online, interactive, educational program based on mindfulness meditation. Briefly, each week subjects are introduced to the (1) weekly audio introduction to the mindfulness theme or particular meditation technique of the week, (2) weekly audio meditation techniques for relaxation, (3) daily articles providing scientific evidence and merits of meditation, and (4) bi-weekly email reminders. The introductory talks and meditation exercises were also provided on compact discs (CD) in mp3 format.; Other Names: Stress Free Now; Behavioral: Group Support (WSMg1); Subjects will meet once per week for 1 hour during the 8-week duration and practice 2-minutes of deep breathing exercises, listen to 10-minutes audio recording of the weekly lesson and practice 20-30 minutes guided meditation exercise. The remainder of the time will be used to foster sharing experiences and answering specific questions related to the weekly lesson.; Behavioral: Clinical Expert Support (WSMg2); A clinical psychologist will replace the non-expert facilitator during 4 group support sessions.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Assess whether an 8-week mindfulness stress reduction online program is effective in improving mindfulness.	Outcome measured using Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) questionnaire.	8 weeks
Assess whether an 8-week mindfulness stress reduction online program is effective in reducing stress mindfulness.	Outcome measured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS10) questionnaire.	8 weeks
Assess whether an 8-week mindfulness stress reduction online program is effective in decreasing burnout mindfulness.	Outcome measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI).	8 weeks
To see whether a one-hour weekly group at work enhances amount of meditation practice.	Outcome measured by self-reported average amount of weekly meditation practice.	8 weeks
To see whether a one-hour weekly group at work improves mindfulness.	Outcome measured using Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MASS) questionnaire.	8 week
To see whether a one-hour weekly group at work reduces stress.	Outcome measured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS10) questionnaire.	8 weeks
To see whether a one-hour weekly group at work decreases burnout.	Outcome measured using Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) questionnaire.	8 weeks
To see whether a one-hour weekly group at work enhances engagement.	Engagement assessed by measuring number of weeks participants actively accessed the intervention website.	8 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Assess if the program is effective at increasing emotional well-being.	Outcome measured using emotional well-being subscale of the RAND Corporation's Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF36).	8 weeks, 16 weeks, and 1 year
Assess whether the program leads to an increase in work productivity.	Productivity assessed using the call center composite measure of productivity computed monthly for each call service associate.	8 weeks, 16 weeks, and 1 year
Assess if the program is effective at increasing vitality.	Outcome measured using vitality subscale of the RAND Corporation's Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF36).	8 weeks, 16 weeks, 1 year
Assess if the program is effective at increasing emotional role functioning.	Outcome measured using emotional role functioning subscale of the RAND Corporation's Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF36).	8 weeks, 16 weeks, 1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The Cleveland Clinic
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Didier Allexandre, PhD, The Cleveland Clinic

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Stress Free Now (web-based stress management program)

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: May 1, 2011
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2011
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 26, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 12, 2014
• First Posted (Estimate): March 14, 2014

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 11, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 6, 2022
• Last Verified: May 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Stress, Psychological
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB# 11-254

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No