Mindfulness Meditation Versus Physical Exercise: Comparing Effects on Stress and Immunocompetence

Stress Clinical Trial

Official title:

Mindfulness Meditation vs. Physical Exercise as Internal Recovery Strategies: Study on Comparative Effects on Stress, Fatigue, Burnout, Sleep Quality and Immunocompetence. A Randomized Controlled Trial

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03728062
• Other study ID #: 0709201711717
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: September 4, 2017
• Est. completion date: May 1, 2018

Study information

• Verified date: July 2018
• Source: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The objective of this research project is to examine if including mindfulness meditation or physical exercise at lunch break improve workers' recovery from work stress. Therefore, 72 workers included either mindfulness meditation or physical exercise during their lunchbreaks for a month in order to find out if these recovery strategies have more favorable outcomes than usually spent lunch breaks concerning: a) psychological detachment, b) perceived stress, c) general health, d) burnout, e) fatigue, f) quality of sleep, g) cortisol awakening response and h) immunocompetence.

Description:

The investigators conduct an intervention study in a sample of 72 knowledge-workers, who engaged in mindfulness meditation or physical activities for five weeks. They performed from 15 to 30 minutes during their lunch breaks. The investigators randomly assigned participants to three experimental conditions: 1) mindfulness meditation, 2) physical activity, 3) control group (lunch break as usual). Online questionnaires before and after intervention assessed long term changes regarding recovery processes, perceived stress, health, mindfulness and burnout. For daily changes, a mobile application was developed to assess changes once per day immediately after work. The investigators also collect saliva samples to map cortisol and immunoglobulin A excretion across the intervention period. The investigators had two follow-up measures one and six months after the intervention.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 72
• Est. completion date: May 1, 2018
• Est. primary completion date: November 1, 2017
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 65 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Knowledge-workers of an specific company with similar stress level.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Serious illness

• Regular meditation

• Regular physical exercise

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
• Stress

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Mindfulness meditation
Guided mindfulness meditation focused on breath sensations, thoughts and emotions.
• Physical exercise
Cardio exercise at gym like rowing, eliptical, cycling, or running outside.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Spain	Telefonica S.A, Telecom company	Madrid

Sponsors (3)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia	Universidad de Zaragoza, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Spain, 

References & Publications (12)

Bliese PD, Edwards JR, Sonnentag S. Stress and well-being at work: A century of empirical trends reflecting theoretical and societal influences. J Appl Psychol. 2017 Mar;102(3):389-402. doi: 10.1037/apl0000109. Epub 2017 Jan 26. Review. — View Citation

Daubenmier J, Hayden D, Chang V, Epel E. It's not what you think, it's how you relate to it: dispositional mindfulness moderates the relationship between psychological distress and the cortisol awakening response. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2014 Oct;48:11-8. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.05.012. Epub 2014 May 27. — View Citation

Hahn VC, Binnewies C, Sonnentag S, Mojza EJ. Learning how to recover from job stress: effects of a recovery training program on recovery, recovery-related self-efficacy, and well-being. J Occup Health Psychol. 2011 Apr;16(2):202-16. doi: 10.1037/a0022169. — View Citation

Hülsheger UR, Walkowiak A, Thommes MS. How can mindfulness be promoted? Workload and recovery experiences as antecedents of daily fluctuations in mindfulness. J Occup Organ Psychol. 2018 Jun;91(2):261-284. doi: 10.1111/joop.12206. Epub 2018 Mar 4. — View Citation

Jamieson SD, Tuckey MR. Mindfulness interventions in the workplace: A critique of the current state of the literature. J Occup Health Psychol. 2017 Apr;22(2):180-193. doi: 10.1037/ocp0000048. Epub 2016 Sep 19. Review. — View Citation

Kobayashi H, Song C, Ikei H, Park BJ, Kagawa T, Miyazaki Y. Diurnal Changes in Distribution Characteristics of Salivary Cortisol and Immunoglobulin A Concentrations. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2017 Aug 31;14(9). pii: E987. doi: 10.3390/ijerph14090987. — View Citation

Leicht CA, Goosey-Tolfrey VL, Bishop NC. Exercise intensity and its impact on relationships between salivary immunoglobulin A, saliva flow rate and plasma cortisol concentration. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2018 Jun;118(6):1179-1187. doi: 10.1007/s00421-018-3847-6. Epub 2018 Apr 7. — View Citation

Moreira A, Freitas CG, Nakamura FY, Drago G, Drago M, Aoki MS. Effect of match importance on salivary cortisol and immunoglobulin A responses in elite young volleyball players. J Strength Cond Res. 2013 Jan;27(1):202-7. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31825183d9. — View Citation

Nägel IJ, Sonnentag S. Exercise and sleep predict personal resources in employees' daily lives. Appl Psychol Health Well Being. 2013 Nov;5(3):348-68. doi: 10.1111/aphw.12014. Epub 2013 Oct 8. — View Citation

Sanz-Vergel AI, Sebastián J, Rodríguez-Muñoz A, Garrosa E, Moreno-Jiménez B, Sonnentag S. [Adaptation of the "Recovery Experience Questionnaire" in a Spanish sample]. Psicothema. 2010 Nov;22(4):990-6. Spanish. — View Citation

Sonnentag S, Arbeus H, Mahn C, Fritz C. Exhaustion and lack of psychological detachment from work during off-job time: moderator effects of time pressure and leisure experiences. J Occup Health Psychol. 2014 Apr;19(2):206-16. doi: 10.1037/a0035760. Epub 2014 Mar 17. — View Citation

Sonnentag S, Venz L, Casper A. Advances in recovery research: What have we learned? What should be done next? J Occup Health Psychol. 2017 Jul;22(3):365-380. doi: 10.1037/ocp0000079. Epub 2017 Mar 30. Review. — View Citation

* Note: There are 12 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Spanish version of the Perceived Stress Questionnaire of Levenstein	Validation of the Spanish version of the Perceived Stress Questionnaire of Levenstein et al. (1993). It is a scale to measure stress in psychosomatic disorders. It consists of 30 items, with Likert responses from 1(almost never) to 4 (almost always). The Spanish version has 6 factors: Harrassment-social acceptance, Overload, Irritability-tension-fatigue, Energy-Joy, Fear-anxiety, Self-realization-satisfaction. The higher score, the higher perceived stress.	8 months
Primary	Recovery Experience Questionnaire (Sonnentag et al., 2007)	Recovery Experience Questionnaire (Sonnentag et al. 2007) is a measure for assessing recuperation from work. It has 16 items divided into four subscales: psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery and control. Each subscale has 4 items. Every items has a 5-point scale from 1 (I do not agree al all) to 5 (I fully agree). Higher scores indicates a higher degree of recovery from work stress.	8 months
Primary	Spanish version of the General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg et al., 1997)	Short version of General Health questionnaire. It has 12 items divided into three subscales: Stress, Coping strategies and Self-steem. Every item has a Likert scale to answer from 0 to 3. Higher scores indicates worse general health.	8 months
Primary	Salivary Immunoglobulin A	Level changes from Baseline to 1 month follow-up. Samples were collected in Salivettes -trademark- (a plastic tube with a swab) twice a day: in the morning (round 7am) and after work (round 7pm). There were collected two Salivettes every of the three moment of measuring (pretest, postest and 1 month follow-up). That means there were taken 6 tubes for every participant.	1 months