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Brief Online Mindfulness- and Compassion-Based Inter-Care Program for Students During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Randomized Controlled Trial

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Abstract

Objectives

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on health, economy, and social networks had an impact on the whole population’s mental health, including students. The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief online mindfulness- and compassion-based inter-care intervention for medical students.

Methods

A randomized controlled trial was conducted with medical students (n=360) from a Chilean university with no prior meditation experience. An online assessment of well-being, anxiety, and depression symptoms was completed at the beginning, 1 month, and 3 months later. A general intervention (GI) was offered to the whole group including academic flexibility, breaks, and individual psychological help. For specific intervention, enrolled participants (n=120) were randomly assigned to (1) mindfulness-based inter-care intervention (IBAP, n=60) or (2) psychoeducational intervention (PSE, n=60) as an active control. Both interventions lasted 1 hr per week along 4 weeks, with homework assignments. The non-randomized third group (n=240) received only the GI, as a treatment-as-usual control group (TAU-GI).

Results

At baseline, IBAP and PSE groups had higher scores in depression symptoms than TAU-GI. IBAP and TAU-GI showed a significant reduction in depression (F(2)=17.44, p<0.001) and anxiety symptoms (F(2)=18.06, p<0.001), but not for the PSE group at first and 3 months. Compared to TAU-GI, IBAP showed a substantial reduction in depression symptoms at first month (U=24.89, p<0.05). An analysis of secondary variables showed improvements in the factors of mental health continuum and common humanity on the Self-Compassion Scale.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that brief online mindfulness- and compassion-based inter-care intervention, with academic flexibility and break, effectively promoted mental health among medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Preregistration

The protocol was enrolled in Clinicaltrial.gov with protocol ID NCT05011955.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The data are not publicly available due to them containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants. However, the authors are committed to making the data available to interested researchers in a responsible and transparent manner, in compliance with all relevant ethical and legal requirements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Educación Médica y Simulación Clínica Facultad de Medicina - Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile

    Francisco J. Villalón, Maria Ivonne Moreno, Williams Venegas, Javiera V. Arancibia C., Adrian Soto & Alfredo Pemjean

  2. Programa de Postgrado en Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Complejo Asistencial Sótero del Río, Facultad de Medicina - Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile

    Francisco J. Villalón

  3. Albizu University-Miami, Doral, USA

    Rita Rivera

Authors
  1. Francisco J. Villalón
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  2. Maria Ivonne Moreno
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  3. Rita Rivera
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  4. Williams Venegas
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  5. Javiera V. Arancibia C.
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  6. Adrian Soto
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  7. Alfredo Pemjean
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Contributions

Francisco J. Villalón L: study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis. Writing — original draft preparation. Writing — review and editing. Methodology. Formal analysis and investigation. Williams Venegas Gonzalez: writing — original draft preparation. Writing — review and editing. Javiera Arancibia: writing — original draft preparation. Writing — review and editing. Formal analysis and investigation. Adrian Soto: writing — original draft preparation. Writing — review and editing. Formal analysis and investigation. Maria Ivonne Moreno: formal analysis and investigation. Supervision. Rita Rivera: writing — review and editing. Alfredo Pemjean: writing — review and editing. Supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francisco J. Villalón.

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Ethics Statement

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of University Diego Portales University in Santiago, Chile (N 06-2020) on May 14, 2020. The protocol was enrolled in Clinicaltrial.gov with protocol ID NCT05011955.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent and consent to publish were obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Villalón, F.J., Moreno, M.I., Rivera, R. et al. Brief Online Mindfulness- and Compassion-Based Inter-Care Program for Students During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Mindfulness 14, 1918–1929 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02159-8

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