Novak Brenna K, Gebhardt Anna, Pallerla Harini, McDonald Susan Blocksom, Haramati Aviad, Cotton Sian
Center for Integrative Health and Wellness, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Athens, Ohio.
Glob Adv Health Med. 2020 Nov 23;9:2164956120973983. doi: 10.1177/2164956120973983. eCollection 2020.
Positive effects of mind-body skills programs on participant well-being have been reported in health professions students. The success seen with medical students at this university led to great interest in expanding the mind-body skills program so students in other disciplines could benefit from the program.
The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a 9-week mind-body skills program on the mental and emotional well-being of multidisciplinary students compared to controls. We also sought to determine if the program's effects were sustained at 1-year follow-up.
A cross-sectional pre-post survey was administered online via SurveyMonkey to participants of a 9-week mind-body skills program and a control group of students from 7 colleges at a public university from 2017-2019. Students were assessed on validated measures of stress, positive/negative affect, resilience, depression, anxiety, fatigue, sleep disturbance, mindfulness, empathy, and burnout. Scores were analyzed between-groups and within-groups using bivariate and multivariate analyses. A 1-year follow-up was completed on a subset of participants and controls.
279 participants and 247 controls completed the pre-survey and post-survey (79% response rate; 71% female, 68% white, mean age = 25 years). Participants showed significant decreases in stress, negative affect, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and burnout, while positive affect, resilience, mindfulness, and empathy increased significantly (<.05). Only sleep disturbance showed a significant decrease in the control group. Follow-up in a subset of participants showed that only mindfulness remained elevated at 1-year (<.05), whereas the significant changes in other well-being measures were not sustained.
Participation in a 9-week mind-body skills program led to significant improvement in indicators of well-being in multidisciplinary students. A pilot 1-year follow-up suggests that effects are only sustained for mindfulness, but not other parameters. Future programming should focus on implementing mind-body skills booster sessions to help sustain the well-being benefits.
身心技能项目对健康专业学生的幸福感有积极影响。该大学医学院学生取得的成功引发了人们对扩大身心技能项目的浓厚兴趣，以便其他学科的学生也能从该项目中受益。
本研究旨在评估一项为期9周的身心技能项目对多学科学生心理和情绪幸福感的影响，并与对照组进行比较。我们还试图确定该项目的效果在1年随访时是否持续存在。
2017年至2019年，通过SurveyMonkey在线对一所公立大学7个学院参加为期9周身心技能项目的参与者和对照组学生进行横断面前后调查。使用经过验证的压力、积极/消极情绪、恢复力、抑郁、焦虑、疲劳、睡眠障碍、正念、同理心和倦怠测量方法对学生进行评估。使用双变量和多变量分析对组间和组内得分进行分析。对部分参与者和对照组进行了1年随访。
279名参与者和247名对照组完成了前测和后测（回复率79%；71%为女性，68%为白人，平均年龄 = 25岁）。参与者的压力、消极情绪、抑郁、焦虑、睡眠障碍和倦怠显著降低，而积极情绪、恢复力、正念和同理心显著增加（P <.05）。对照组中只有睡眠障碍显著降低。对部分参与者的随访显示，1年时只有正念仍然升高（P <.05），而其他幸福感指标的显著变化未持续。
参加为期9周的身心技能项目可使多学科学生的幸福感指标显著改善。一项为期1年的试点随访表明，效果仅在正念方面持续存在，而非其他参数。未来的项目应侧重于开展身心技能强化课程，以帮助维持幸福感益处。
