Prospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 14, 2022; 10(2): 576-584
Published online Jan 14, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i2.576
5-min mindfulness audio induction alleviates psychological distress and sleep disorders in patients with COVID-19
Jing Li, Yun-Yun Zhang, Xiao-Yin Cong, Shu-Rong Ren, Xiao-Ming Tu, Jin-Feng Wu
Jing Li, Yun-Yun Zhang, Shu-Rong Ren, Jin-Feng Wu, Department of Geriatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China
Xiao-Yin Cong, Department of Psychology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China
Xiao-Ming Tu, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Li J, Wu JF, and Cong XY conceived and coordinated the study, designed and performed the experiments, and wrote the paper; Zhang YY, Tu XM, and Ren SR carried out data collection and revised the paper; all authors contributed to the data analysis, reviewed the results, and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the ethics review board of Jiangsu Province Hospital.
Clinical trial registration statement: This study is registered at the ethics committee of Jiangsu Provincial Hospital (No. 2020-SR-007). A separate document was uploaded as a proof of registry.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from each patient.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors of this manuscript have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: There are no additional data available.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 Statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jin-Feng Wu, BSc, Department of Geriatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, No. 300 Guangzhou Road, Gulou District, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China. wujf64@163.com
Received: June 17, 2021
Peer-review started: June 17, 2021
First decision: July 26, 2021
Revised: August 8, 2021
Accepted: December 7, 2021
Article in press: December 7, 2021
Published online: January 14, 2022
Processing time: 208 Days and 22.6 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Mindfulness meditation is beneficial to mitigate the negative effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the general population, but no study examined such meditation in the COVID-19 patients themselves.

AIM

To explore the short-term efficacy of mindfulness meditation in alleviating psychological distress and sleep disorders in patients with COVID-19.

METHODS

This prospective study enrolled patients with mild COVID-19 treated at Wuhan Fangcang Hospital in February 2020. The patients were voluntarily divided into either a mindfulness or a conventional intervention group. The patients were evaluated before/after the intervention using the Short Inventory of Mindfulness Capability (SMI-C), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).

RESULTS

Seventy-five participants were enrolled in this study, with 43 and 32 in the mindfulness and conventional groups, respectively. Before the intervention, there were no differences in SMI-C, HADS, or PSQI scores between the two groups. After the 2-wk intervention, the mindfulness level (from 30.16 ± 5.58 to 35.23 ± 5.95, P < 0.001) and sleep quality (from 12.85 ± 3.06 to 9.44 ± 3.86, P < 0.001) were significantly increased in the mindfulness group. There were no differences in the conventional group. After the intervention, the mindfulness level (35.23 ± 5.95 vs 31.17 ± 6.50, P = 0.006) and sleep quality (9.44 ± 3.86 vs 11.87 ± 4.06, P = 0.011) were significantly higher in the mindfulness group than in the conventional group. Depression decreased in the mindfulness group (from 14.15 ± 3.21 to 12.50 ± 4.01, P = 0.038), but there was no difference between the two groups.

CONCLUSION

Short-term mindfulness meditation can increase the mindfulness level, improve the sleep quality, and decrease the depression of patients with COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Mindfulness; Mental health; Sleep quality

Core Tip: The study aimed to explore the short-term efficacy of mindfulness meditation in alleviating psychological distress and sleep disorders in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A 5-min mindfulness meditation audio induction can elevate the mindfulness levels and improve the sleep quality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. It is an effective, economical, and convenient non-drug psychological intervention that can be universally applied.