@Article{info:doi/10.2196/19364,
author="Huberty, Jennifer
and Eckert, Ryan
and Puzia, Megan
and Laird, Breanne
and Larkey, Linda
and Mesa, Ruben",
title="A Novel Educational Control Group Mobile App for Meditation Interventions: Single-Group Feasibility Trial",
journal="JMIR Form Res",
year="2020",
month="Jul",
day="21",
volume="4",
number="7",
pages="e19364",
keywords="feasibility; smartphone; mHealth; digital health; cancer; beta test",
abstract="Background: Smartphone ownership is becoming ubiquitous among US adults, making the delivery of health interventions via a mobile app (ie, mobile health [mHealth]) attractive to many researchers and clinicians. Meditation interventions have become popular and have been delivered to study participants via mobile apps to improve a range of health outcomes in both healthy adults and those with chronic diseases. However, these meditation mHealth interventions have been limited by a lack of high-quality control groups. More specifically, these studies have lacked consistency in their use of active, time-matched, and attention-matched control groups. Objective: The purpose of this study is to beta test a novel health education podcast control condition delivered via a smartphone app that would be a strong comparator to be used in future studies of app-based meditation interventions. Methods: Patients with myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) cancer were recruited nationally. Upon enrollment, participants were informed to download the investigator-developed health education podcast app onto their mobile phone and listen to {\textasciitilde}60 min/week of cancer-related educational podcasts for 12 weeks. The benchmarks for feasibility included ≥70{\%} of participants completing ≥70{\%} of the prescribed 60 min/week of podcasts, ≥70{\%} of participants reporting that they were satisfied with the intervention, and ≥70{\%} of participants reporting that they enjoyed the health education podcasts. Results: A total of 96 patients with MPN were enrolled in the study; however, 19 never began the intervention. Of the 77 patients who participated in the intervention, 39 completed the entire study (ie, sustained participation through the follow-up period). Participation averaged 103.2 (SD 29.5) min/week. For 83.3{\%} (10/12) of the weeks, at least 70{\%} of participants completed at least 70{\%} of their total prescribed use. Almost half of participants reported that they enjoyed the health education podcasts (19/39, 48.7{\%}) and were satisfied with the intervention (17/39, 43.6{\%}). There were no significant changes in cancer-related outcomes from baseline to postintervention. Conclusions: A 12-week, health education podcast mobile app was demanded but not accepted in a sample of patients with cancer. Using the mobile app was not associated with significant changes in cancer-related symptoms. Based on findings from this study, a health education podcast mobile app may be a feasible option as a time- and attention-matched control group for efficacy trials with more extensive formative research for the content of the podcasts and its acceptability by the specific population. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03907774; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03907774 ",
issn="2561-326X",
doi="10.2196/19364",
url="http://formative.jmir.org/2020/7/e19364/",
url="https://doi.org/10.2196/19364",
url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32706719"
}