Creating and Optimizing Mindfulness Measures to Enhance and Normalize Clinical Evaluation (COMMENCE)

June 12, 2023 updated by: David Victorson, Northwestern University

Creating and Optimizing Mindfulness Measures to Enhance and Normalize Clinical Evaluation (COMMENCE)

While MBI trials have reached a greater level of rigor (e.g., random assignment, matching on time, attention, teacher characteristics, non-specific factors) a significant gap still remains in mindfulness research: the lack of a comprehensive and standardized self-report measurement system. A precise, carefully constructed set of assessment tools based on a common measurement system are needed; where scores can be psychometrically linked to current "legacy" measures to better understand the existing body of mindfulness research. In this study, Creating and Optimizing Mindfulness Measures to Enhance and Normalize Clinical Evaluation (COMMENCE), the investigators will use Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) methodologies to construct improved self-report mindfulness-related measures. They will also use PROMIS-based PROsetta Stone linking methods to equate scores and create cross-walks between new mindfulness measures and existing ones.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The investigators will use Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) methodologies to construct improved self-report mindfulness-related measures. They will also use PROMIS-based PROsetta Stone® instrument linking methods to equate scores and create cross-walks between new mindfulness measures and existing ones. The research team has extensive experience in patient reported outcomes (PRO) development through PROMIS and related PRO development initiatives, including mind-body measures (Chicago and Pittsburgh), PROsetta Stone linking methodologies (Chicago), and mindfulness research (Pittsburgh and Chicago).

PROMIS methodologies involve a systematic and iterative approach to person-centered measurement and are the gold standard. Following PROMIS methods, newly created mindfulness measures will be informed by: 1) the existing literature, and 2) stakeholders such as mindfulness researchers, Buddhist and MBI teachers, and new and experienced meditators. COMMENCE analyses will also reflect PROMIS, producing concise, precise, clinically relevant measures that can be administered as Computerized Adaptive Tests (CATs) or fixed-length short forms. PROsetta Stone methods will enable a crosswalk between the new mindfulness measures and legacy instruments that assess similar constructs. All of this will have a major impact on mindfulness research through increasing measurement precision and comparability across and between studies: past, present, and future. The project will also address the response shift challenge. New mindfulness measures and crosswalk linking will be produced through the following three SPECIFIC AIMS:

SPECIFIC AIM I. Development of New Mindfulness Item Banks. Activities include: 1) a review of the mindfulness measurement literature; 2) an online survey of mindfulness researchers to identify domains and measurement considerations for item bank development; 3) focus groups with new and experienced meditators, and individual interviews with mindfulness meditation practitioners, including Buddhist teachers, to elaborate on concepts such as response shift; 4) item refinement; 6) translatability review; and 7) cognitive interviews to assess item clarity.

SPECIFIC AIM II. Calibration of New Mindfulness Item Banks and Score Linking with Legacy Measures. Calibration activities will include: 1) testing new mindfulness item banks in a large online general population sample (n=4200) and a sample of mindfulness teachers and students (n=500); 2) evaluation of dimensionality and other assumptions prior to Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis; 3) IRT analyses; and 4) creation of CATs and fixed length short forms. A battery of legacy measures will also be administrated alongside new mindfulness banks. Using PROsetta Stone procedures, the investigators will test mindfulness banks and legacy measures in a new large online sample (n=3000) to link measures on a common measurement metric and create cross-walk scoring tables to facilitate interpretation.

SPECIFIC AIM III. Validation of New Mindfulness Short Forms in Ongoing Mindfulness Courses. To evaluate different forms of validity (e.g., construct, criterion), responsiveness to change over time, and estimation of minimally important differences, the investigators will administer new mindfulness short forms and legacy measures to 250 mindfulness students at baseline, 8-weeks, and 16 weeks in multiple, on-going 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) courses and similar MBI programs at Pittsburgh and Chicago sites, as well as at member sites from the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health and the BraveNet Practice-Based Research Network. In addition to legacy measures, a subset of the sample will complete the meditation breath awareness score, an experiential measure of focused attention.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

8152

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15232
        • University of Pittsburgh

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Must be at least 18 years of age
  • Must be able to speak and understand English
  • Must be enrolled in an multi-week, group-based, instructor-led, live (in-person or online) mindfulness-based program that has not yet started (i.e., before session 1)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Unable to provide consent

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Mindfulness
Behavioral: Mindfulness
Mindfulness

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Mindfulness Questionnaire
Time Frame: DAY 0
Mindfulness Questionnaire
DAY 0

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Northwestern University

Collaborators

University of Pittsburgh
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: David E Victorson, PhD, Northwestern University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

July 1, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 26, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

July 26, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 16, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 25, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

April 27, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

June 13, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 12, 2023

Last Verified

June 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • STU00205373
  • 1R01AT009539-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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