Unwinding Physician Anxiety

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Burnout, Professional; Anxiety
• Interventions: Behavioral: App-based mindfulness training

• Registration Number: NCT04137081
• Lead Sponsor: University of Massachusetts, Worcester

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to test an app-based mindfulness training program to see if it can reduce anxiety and burnout in physicians.

Detailed Description

In this study, 50 clinicians will be provided access to the Unwinding Anxiety program. The intervention period will last 3 months and changes in anxiety and burnout along with program engagement will be assessed at baseline, 1 month, and 3 months.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2018-04-03
• Primary Completion: 2018-08-28
• Study Completion: 2018-08-28
• Status Verified: 2019-10
• Study First Submitted: 2019-10-22
• Study First Submitted QC: 2019-10-22
• Last Update Submitted: 2019-10-22
• Study First Posted: 2019-10-23
• Last Update Posted: 2019-10-23

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 57

Inclusion Criteria

• Currently employed as a physician

• Direct patient interaction

• Owns a smartphone

• Endorsed anxiety based on answering yes to following questions:

  1. Do you feel nervous, anxious, or on edge?
  2. Do you feel you worry too much about different things?

• Endorsed willingness to use smartphone app for 10+ minutes/day for 30 days

• Endorsed willingness to complete online surveys

Exclusion Criteria

• None

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
App-based mindfulness training	App-based mindfulness training	The Unwinding Anxiety program is delivered via a smartphone-based platform, which includes a progression through 30+ daily modules of brief didactic and experience-based mindfulness training (videos and animations), app-triggered check-ins to encourage engagement, and user-initiated guided mindfulness exercises to help disrupt worry cycles in the moment.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Changes in anxiety	1 month	Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) questionnaire will be used to assess anxiety. The GAD-7 uses a 4-point Likert scale where 0 is "Not at all" to 3 "Nearly every day". Scores can range from 0 to 21 and higher scores indicate increasing severity of anxiety.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Changes in burnout	1 month	Two, single-item questions from the emotional exhaustion and cynicism domains of the Maslach Burnout Inventory will be used to assess burnout. Both questions are on a 7-point Likert scale where 0 is "never" and 7 is "every day". Scores can range from 0 to 7 for each domain and higher scores indicate increasing levels of burnout.
Program engagement	1 month	Program engagement will be assessed based on the number of modules completed. The program has 30 modules therefore scores scan range from 0 to 30 modules.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Massachusetts Medical School; 🇺🇸 Worcester, Massachusetts, United States