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A Pilot Mobile-Based Mindfulness Intervention for Cancer Patients and Their Informal Caregivers

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Abstract

This 8-week single-arm pilot trial within Kaiser Permanente Northern California tested the feasibility of conducting a mobile app/online-based mindfulness intervention for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and their caregivers. Participants were cancer patients with ≥8 weeks of remaining chemotherapy and their informal caregivers, where neither had a regular meditation practice. Participants were given access to a commercially available mindfulness program, Headspace™, via smartphone or computer and were asked to practice meditation using the program for 10–20 min daily. Data were collected on depression, anxiety, sleep, fatigue, quality of life at baseline and post-intervention using validated instruments. Qualitative telephone interviews gathered data regarding participants’ experience with the intervention. Nineteen patients (68%) and 9 caregivers (60%) completed the study. Approximately 40% of the patients had stage 3 or 4 cancer, and 30% were males and non-whites. Among them, 20 (71%) practiced meditation using the app > 50% of the days during the 8-week study period, and 60% of those individuals practiced > 70% of the days. Preliminary before-after comparison data suggested reduction in levels of distress and improvement in quality of life. In qualitative interviews, participants reported ease in use of the mindfulness program and appreciation for the convenience of accessing the program any time. Our results suggest that an app/online-based mindfulness intervention is feasible and well-accepted by cancer patients and their caregivers within an integrated healthcare system.

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Acknowledgments

We thank participants of the POEM (Practice of Embracing Each Moment) study. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant KL2TR000143, K07CA166143) and Kaiser Permanente Planned Giving Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, 2000 Broadway, Oakland, CA, 94612, USA

    Ai Kubo, Andrea Altschuler, Elaine Kurtovich, Sarah Hendlish, Cecile A. Laurent & Andrew Avins

  2. Kaiser Permanente Napa/Solano Medical Center, 975 Sereno Drive, Vallejo, CA, 94589, USA

    Tatjana Kolevska

  3. Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center, 3600 Broadway, Oakland, CA, 94611, USA

    Yan Li

  4. School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco, CA, 94143-0410, USA

    Andrew Avins

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  1. Ai Kubo
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  2. Andrea Altschuler
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  3. Elaine Kurtovich
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  4. Sarah Hendlish
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Contributions

AK obtained funding, designed and executed the study, assisted with the data analyses, and wrote the paper. AA collaborated on the design of the study, the data analysis, and writing and editing of the final manuscript. EK collaborated on the data analysis and writing and editing of the final manuscript. SH collaborated on the study protocol, recruitment, participant contacts, and the data collection. CL organized and conducted the statistical analyses. TK collaborated on the design and execution of the study. YL collaborated on the design and execution of the study. AA collaborated on the design of the study, the data analysis, and editing of the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ai Kubo.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The Kaiser Permanente Northern California Institutional Review Board provided IRB approval for the study. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Kubo, A., Altschuler, A., Kurtovich, E. et al. A Pilot Mobile-Based Mindfulness Intervention for Cancer Patients and Their Informal Caregivers. Mindfulness 9, 1885–1894 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-0931-2

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