Digital Meditation to Target Employee Stress: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Level 2 - randomized trial
Individual randomized controlled trial
PubMed 39808431 · doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.54435
What was done
Adult employees (n = 1,458; 80.8% female; mean age 35.54 years) at a large academic medical center reporting mild to moderate stress and no prior regular meditation were randomized 1:1 to an 8-week digital meditation program (instructed 10 minutes/day) or a waitlist control group. Assessments occurred at baseline, 8 weeks, and 4 months. The primary outcome was change in Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) score at 8 weeks; secondary outcomes included job strain (effort-reward imbalance), burnout, work engagement, mindfulness, depression, and anxiety.
What was found
At 8 weeks, the meditation group showed significant improvements versus waitlist in PSS (Cohen d = 0.85; 95% CI, 0.73-0.96) and job strain (Cohen d = 0.34; 95% CI, 0.23-0.46), with improvements across all secondary outcomes. These were maintained at 4 months (PSS: Cohen d = 0.71; 95% CI, 0.59-0.84; job strain: Cohen d = 0.37; 95% CI, 0.25-0.50). Using the app 5 to 9.9 min/day versus less than 5 min/day yielded greater stress reduction (mean PSS score difference, -6.58; 95% CI, -7.44 to -5.73).
Why it matters
This demonstrates that a brief, smartphone-delivered mindfulness intervention can meaningfully reduce general perceived stress and work-related strain in an employee population in a scalable manner.
Limits
The study used an inactive waitlist control rather than an active digital comparator, meaning non-specific engagement or placebo effects cannot be ruled out. The sample was volunteer-based, 80.8% female, and drawn from a single academic medical center. All endpoints were self-reported without objective physiological markers.