Short Practices Well-being Study

The goal of this research study is to better understand the effects of short practices on well-being.

Participants will be asked to complete a task that will take 5-10 minutes, followed by a set of surveys. They will also be invited to complete a second set of surveys ~7 days later.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Well-Being, Psychological
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Meditation practices; Other: Internet-as-usual

Detailed Description

The aim of this study is to better understand the effects of short practices on well-being. In the initial part of the study, participants will be required to complete a set of surveys assessing their health along with demographic measures. Participants will also be asked to complete a brief task. They will be asked sensitive questions (e.g., about your psychological state, mental health). To have their submission accepted, participants must correctly answer questions designed to check if they are paying attention. This part of the study will take approximately 24 minutes to complete. Anonymized data may be made available to other researchers. One week after completing this study, participants will be invited to complete a second set of surveys.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 5049
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Wisconsin
    • Madison, Wisconsin, United States, 53705
      • University of Wisconsin

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• United States and United Kingdom residents 18 year or older

Exclusion Criteria:

• Inability or unwillingness to complete the study
• Fail to pass the attention check embedded in the survey

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

14

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Mindfulness, 5 minutes, male voice; Mindfulness meditation, 5 minutes duration, with a male speaker.	Behavioral: Meditation practices; Participants will listen to recordings of short meditation practices drawn from the Healthy Minds Program.
Experimental: Mindfulness, 10 minutes, male voice; Mindfulness meditation, 10 minutes duration, with a male speaker.	Behavioral: Meditation practices; Participants will listen to recordings of short meditation practices drawn from the Healthy Minds Program.
Experimental: Mindfulness, 5 minutes, female voice; Mindfulness meditation, 5 minutes duration, with a female speaker.	Behavioral: Meditation practices; Participants will listen to recordings of short meditation practices drawn from the Healthy Minds Program.
Experimental: Mindfulness, 10 minutes, female voice; Mindfulness meditation, 10 minutes duration, with a female speaker.	Behavioral: Meditation practices; Participants will listen to recordings of short meditation practices drawn from the Healthy Minds Program.
Experimental: Self-compassion, 5 minutes, male voice; Self-compassion meditation, 5 minutes duration, with a male speaker.	Behavioral: Meditation practices; Participants will listen to recordings of short meditation practices drawn from the Healthy Minds Program.
Experimental: Self-compassion, 10 minutes, male voice; Self-compassion meditation, 10 minutes duration, with a male speaker.	Behavioral: Meditation practices; Participants will listen to recordings of short meditation practices drawn from the Healthy Minds Program.
Experimental: Self-compassion, 5 minutes, female voice; Self-compassion meditation, 5 minutes duration, with a female speaker.	Behavioral: Meditation practices; Participants will listen to recordings of short meditation practices drawn from the Healthy Minds Program.
Experimental: Self-compassion, 10 minutes, female voice; Self-compassion meditation, 10 minutes duration, with a female speaker.	Behavioral: Meditation practices; Participants will listen to recordings of short meditation practices drawn from the Healthy Minds Program.
Experimental: Gratitude, 5 minutes, male voice; Gratitude meditation, 5 minutes duration, with a male speaker.	Behavioral: Meditation practices; Participants will listen to recordings of short meditation practices drawn from the Healthy Minds Program.
Experimental: Gratitude, 10 minutes, male voice; Gratitude meditation, 10 minutes duration, with a male speaker.	Behavioral: Meditation practices; Participants will listen to recordings of short meditation practices drawn from the Healthy Minds Program.
Experimental: Gratitude, 5 minutes, female voice; Gratitude meditation, 5 minutes duration, with a female speaker.	Behavioral: Meditation practices; Participants will listen to recordings of short meditation practices drawn from the Healthy Minds Program.
Experimental: Gratitude, 10 minutes, female voice; Gratitude meditation, 10 minutes duration, with a female speaker.	Behavioral: Meditation practices; Participants will listen to recordings of short meditation practices drawn from the Healthy Minds Program.
Other: Internet-as-usual, 5 minutes; Participants will be instructed to use the internet as they typical do for 5 minutes.	Other: Internet-as-usual; Participants will be instructed to use the internet as they typically do.
Other: Internet-as-usual, 10 minutes; Participants will be instructed to use the internet as they typical do for 10 minutes.	Other: Internet-as-usual; Participants will be instructed to use the internet as they typically do.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Positive Affect	Participants respond to a 10-item survey indicating their current mood. Response options range from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). Five items reflect positive affect. Higher scores indicate higher positive affect.	Current positive affect pre- and post- short tasks (up to 10 minutes).
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Negative Affect	Participants respond to a 10-item survey indicating their current mood. Response options range from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). Five items reflect negative affect. Higher scores indicate higher negative affect.	Current negative affect pre- and post- short tasks (up to 10 minutes).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
State Mindfulness Scale	Participants respond to a 21-item survey indicating their state mindfulness. Response options range from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very well). Higher scores indicate higher state mindfulness.	Up to 10 minutes
State Self-Compassion Scale Short Form	Participants respond to a 6-item survey indicating their state self-compassion. Response options range from 1 (not at all true for me) to 5 (very true for me). Higher scores indicate higher state self-compassion.	Up to 10 minutes
Gratitude Adjective Checklist - 3	Participants respond to a 3-item survey indicating their state gratitude. Response options range from 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely). Higher scores indicate higher state gratitude.	Up to 10 minutes
Adverse reaction to short tasks	Participants will indicate whether they had a "distressing experience" (yes/no) during the task they completed.	Up to 10 minutes
Meditation practice using the short task practice type.	Participants will be asked how many days they practiced the three meditation practice types during the past week.	7-day follow-up
Healthy Minds Program download	Participants will be asked whether they downloaded the Healthy Minds Program and how many days they used the app if they downloaded it.	7-day follow-up
Ruminative Response Style	Participants respond to an 8-item survey indicating their level of rumination. Response options range from 1 (almost never) to 4 (almost always). Higher scores indicate higher rumination.	Pre- short tasks and 7-day follow-up
NIH Toolbox Loneliness	Participants respond to a 5-item survey indicating their level of loneliness. Response options range from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Higher scores indicate higher loneliness.	Pre- short tasks and 7-day follow-up
Perceived Stress Scale	Participants respond to a 4-item survey indicating their level of perceived stress. Response options range from 1 (never) to 5 (very often). Higher scores indicate higher perceived stress.	Pre- short tasks and 7-day follow-up
PROMIS Anxiety	Participants respond to a 4-item survey indicating their level of anxiety. Response options range from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Higher scores indicate higher anxiety.	Pre- short tasks and 7-day follow-up
PROMIS Depression	Participants respond to a 4-item survey indicating their level of depression. Response options range from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Higher scores indicate higher depression.	Pre- short tasks and 7-day follow-up
Self-Compassion Scale Short Form	Participants respond to a 12-item survey indicating their level of trait self-compassion. Response options range from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always). Higher scores indicate higher trait self-compassion.	Pre- short tasks and 7-day follow-up
Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire Short Form	Participants respond to a 15-item survey indicating their level of trait mindfulness. Response options range from 1 (never or very rarely true) to 5 (very often or always true). Higher scores indicate higher trait mindfulness.	Pre- short tasks and 7-day follow-up
Gratitude Questionnaire	Participants respond to a 6-item survey indicating their level of trait gratitude. Response options range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Higher scores indicate higher trait gratitude.	Pre- short tasks and 7-day follow-up
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Positive Affect	Participants respond to a 10-item survey indicating their current mood. Response options range from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). Five items reflect positive affect. Higher scores indicate higher positive affect.	7-day follow-up
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Negative Affect	Participants respond to a 10-item survey indicating their current mood. Response options range from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). Five items reflect negative affect. Higher scores indicate higher negative affect.	7-day follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Simon Goldberg, PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 30, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 15, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): December 15, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 28, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 7, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): December 11, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): January 3, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 29, 2023
• Last Verified: December 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: mobile health; mindfulness; meditation; self-compassion; gratitude
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2023-1324; A171600 (Other Identifier: UW Madison); EDUC/COUNSELING PSYCH (Other Identifier: UW Madison); Protocol Version 11/20/2023 (Other Identifier: UW Madison)

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