By EMS1 Staff
SAN FRANCISCO — Mindfulness meditation delivered through a self-guided smartphone app has been shown to reduce workplace stress, burnout and anxiety, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.
The study, “Digital Meditation to Target Employee Stress,” published on Jan. 14 in JAMA Network Open, examined the impact of a commercially available digital meditation platform, Headspace, on over 1,400 UCSF employees. Participants who used the app reported improvements in wellbeing, job satisfaction, mindfulness and reductions in stress, depression and anxiety that persisted months after the study ended.
“Our team found significant, sustained improvements in well-being, job enjoyment and mindfulness, particularly for those who meditated more,” said Rachel Radin, PhD, a psychologist and assistant professor of psychiatry at UCSF.
The randomized trial divided participants into two groups: one using the meditation app and the other assigned to a waitlist control condition. The intervention required as little as five minutes of daily meditation, and adherence to this minimum was linked to the greatest reductions in stress. At the end of the trial and during a four-month follow-up, the app users reported lower levels of job strain and burnout and increased work engagement and perceived job rewards.
Workplace stress is a pervasive issue in the U.S., contributing to approximately 8% of national healthcare costs. Burnout is particularly prevalent among medical professionals, with nearly 45% reporting high levels of job-related exhaustion. Mindfulness meditation has emerged as a promising tool to mitigate these challenges by fostering present-moment awareness and self-regulation. However, in-person mindfulness programs are often difficult to scale, limiting their accessibility and cost-effectiveness.
“Digital mindfulness appears to be a low-cost, low-burden way of improving employee health at scale,” said Aric Prather, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at UCSF. “The mechanisms by which digital mindfulness interventions impart benefits on both general and work-related stress may include an improved capacity to cope with and positively reappraise stressful situations.”
The study’s authors suggest that additional research is needed to further understand how digital mindfulness works and to improve adherence to the intervention. However, the findings indicate that even minimal engagement with app-based meditation can yield meaningful mental health benefits, offering an accessible solution for workplace stress.
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