Student Stress Levels and Management Through Meditation

NCT ID: NCT02821611

Last Updated: 2019-02-11

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

46 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2015-01-31

Study Completion Date

2016-04-30

Brief Summary

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The professional program in Physical Therapy is rigorous and demanding on students, resulting in high levels of fatigue, stress, and sleep disturbance that can impact student performance and wellbeing. This project seeks to investigate ways to reduce student stress, monitor their quality of sleep and possibly enhance their learning through the practice of meditation.

Detailed Description

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Utilizing a randomized controlled study design, a cohort of doctoral students in their first year of physical therapist education will undergo an 8 week intervention of a mantra-based Meditation (twice daily 20 minutes) with pre and post measures of blood pressure, sleep hygiene via the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and stress surveys, including Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Visual Analogue Scale for stress (VAS), as well as daily logs of sleep to assess sleep quality.

As many as 32 students (total number in cohort) per year may participate with 1/2 serving as controls and 1/2 undergoing the meditation practice for 8 weeks.

Baseline measurement details:

QUESTIONNAIRES: Each participant will be given a 1-item Visual Analogue Scale for stress (VAS), a 10 item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and a 9 item Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire. The VAS simply asks subjects to score how much stress they are feeling at that one moment in time on a 0-100 scale. The PSQI scores and assesses sleep quality and disturbances over a 1-month time interval and will be administered at the 4 week mark 1/2 way into the study as well as at pre and post intervention data collection events.

BLOOD PRESSURE: Blood pressure will be measured individually in a separate room to ensure confidentiality. The BP measurements will be administered using an Omron professional automatic blood pressure monitor (model number HEM 907X) to ensure comfort/safety and the accuracy of the reading. Also for accuracy of blood pressure measurements subjects will be asked to refrain from caffeine (coffee, tea or chocolate), cigarettes/nicotine, or exercise that morning until after measurements are taken and avoid alcohol the evening prior. One identified researcher will take all blood pressure reading and will be blinded to which subjects are part of the research or the control groups.

Conditions

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Stress, Psychological

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Investigators

Study Groups

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Meditation Group

Participants in the experimental group are practicing a mantra-based meditation twice daily for 20 minutes over the 8 week intervention period to reduce stress and blood pressure and enhance quality of sleep.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Meditation Group

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

twice daily 20 minute mantra-based meditation practice for 8 weeks

Control Group

Control group participants will continue their normal activities and not add any form of meditation during the study period.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

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Meditation Group

twice daily 20 minute mantra-based meditation practice for 8 weeks

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Graduate student in the first year of the Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) program at California State University, Northridge (CSUN)

Exclusion Criteria

* Taking blood pressure or sleep medication; or already currently practicing a daily meditation.
Minimum Eligible Age

22 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

45 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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California State University, Northridge

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

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Beth J Phillips, PT, DPA

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Full Professor

Locations

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California State University, Northridge

Northridge, California, United States

Site Status

Countries

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United States

Other Identifiers

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1314-136-b

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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