Mobile Mindfulness for Asthma
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the feasibility of a mobile mindfulness-based digital intervention for patients with asthma
IRAS ID
214477
Contact name
Mike Thomas
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Mindfulness is a type of meditation-based therapy that's been used to treat a range of health conditions, including anxiety and depression. Currently, few studies have explored how mindfulness can help chronic health conditions like asthma. In a previous study we looked at how acceptable a traditional ‘short-course’ of mindfulness was to help patients with asthma. Patients liked mindfulness and felt it helped how they felt about their asthma, but attendance was low (perhaps because of the commitment of attending a weekly group meeting). We want to see if ‘Headspace’, a mindfulness-based ‘online’ programme (app and website), can help. The Headspace programme takes 30 days of 10-minute practices that can be done whenever it’s convenient for the user. In this feasibility study we will mainly be looking at how many people want to take part in the study, how many go on to take part and how many complete the process, but we will also look at how much mindfulness could help improve quality of life for people with asthma.
The study will take questionnaire measures of mood and quality-of-life in 80 patients with asthma, before and after using Headspace. Change in these patients will be compared to a control group of 40 patients who will receive their usual care from their GP team. Headspace have allowed free access to their intervention for everyone in the study (although the control group will only be given access after their follow-up measures). We will also call some participants to ask about their experience of the study and of using Headspace, and how they think Headspace (and mindfulness more broadly) could help their asthma. This study will help us design an online programme specifically for people with asthma, to improve their quality of life beyond that offered by ‘pharmacological’ treatments such as new medication types.REC name
South Central - Hampshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/SC/0088
Date of REC Opinion
17 Mar 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion