Rachel Radin of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues conducted a randomized clinical trial and found that daily short-term mindfulness meditation (mindfulness practice) using an app significantly reduced stress and work-related strain in healthcare workers. The study involved 1,458 adult volunteers (average age 35.54 years; 80.8 percent women) employed at a large academic medical center who experienced mild to moderate stress and did not regularly practice meditation. 728 participants were randomly assigned to practice mindfulness meditation using an app for 10 minutes daily for eight weeks; the rest were assigned to no meditation method. Results were assessed after eight weeks and four months. The results were published in JAMA Network Open.
The meditation course was found to significantly reduce stress levels on the PSS scale (Cohen's d 0.85; 95 percent confidence interval 0.73–0.96) and improve additional psychological measures, such as work-related strain (Cohen's d 0.34; 95 percent confidence interval 0.23–0.46). These improvements remained significant at four months post-randomization: Cohen's d 0.71; 95 percent confidence interval 0.59–0.84 and Cohen's d 0.37; 95 percent confidence interval 0.25–0.50, respectively.
