Student Stress Levels and Management Through Meditation

Sponsor

California State University, Northridge (Other)

Overall Status

Completed

CT.gov ID

NCT02821611

Collaborator

(none)

Enrollment

Location

Arms

Duration (Months)

3.1

Patients Per Site Per Month

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

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.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Stress, Psychological	Behavioral: Meditation Group	N/A

Detailed Description

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.

Study Design

Study Type:

Interventional

Actual Enrollment :

46 participants

Allocation:

Randomized

Intervention Model:

Parallel Assignment

Masking:

Single (Investigator)

Primary Purpose:

Treatment

Official Title:

Physical Therapist Doctoral Student Stress Levels and Management Through Meditation

Study Start Date :

Jan 1, 2015

Actual Primary Completion Date :

Apr 1, 2016

Actual Study Completion Date :

Apr 1, 2016

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Experimental: 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.	Behavioral: Meditation Group twice daily 20 minute mantra-based meditation practice for 8 weeks
No Intervention: Control Group Control group participants will continue their normal activities and not add any form of meditation during the study period.

Arm

Intervention/Treatment

Experimental: 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.

Behavioral: Meditation Group

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

No Intervention: Control Group

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

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Change in Blood Pressure [8 weeks]
Omron HEM 907XL professional automatic blood pressure monitor used at baseline and at 8 weeks post intervention
Change in Perceived Stress Survey Questionnaire [At baseline and at 8 weeks post intervention]
10-Item standardized survey tool for perceived stress level
Change in Sleep Hygiene utilizing PSQI survey [survey at baseline, 1 month and at conclusion of 8 weeks]
PSQI sleep survey administered 3 times during the study (baseline, 4 weeks and 8 weeks)

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

22 Years to 45 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

Yes

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.

Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	California State University, Northridge	Northridge	California	United States	91330-8411

Sponsors and Collaborators

California State University, Northridge

Investigators

Principal Investigator: Beth J Phillips, PT, DPA, Full Professor

Study Documents (Full-Text)

None provided.

More Information

Publications

None provided.

Responsible Party:

California State University, Northridge

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:

NCT02821611

Other Study ID Numbers:

1314-136-b

First Posted:

Jul 1, 2016

Last Update Posted:

Feb 11, 2019

Last Verified:

Feb 1, 2019

Keywords provided by California State University, Northridge

Additional relevant MeSH terms:

Stress, Psychological

Study Results

No Results Posted as of Feb 11, 2019