Me-GC: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Meditation for Genetic Counselors

Stanford University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Genetic Counseling Profession

Treatments: Behavioral: Meditation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03723018

IRB-48456

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is designed to determine whether meditation is beneficial for genetic counselors and genetic counseling students. The main goal is to see if meditation can help with professional well-being (burnout for genetic counselors, stress for genetic counseling students). The investigators will also explore whether meditation has other benefits for the genetic counseling profession.

Full description

The investigators will recruit 390-420 genetic counselors and 189-210 genetic counseling students. Participants will be randomized into one of three groups of roughly the same size: two meditation groups and an observational group. All three groups will fill out online surveys at several points in the study. The only thing the observational group will be asked to do is fill out these surveys. The meditation groups will be asked to meditate for 10 minutes a day for 8 weeks. Participants will be provided with an app or website that instructs them on how to meditate.

Outcome analyses will be done with an intention to treat approach. Outcomes will be assessed using linear regression with the outcome variable as the dependent variable and baseline outcome measure, baseline mindfulness, and treatment group as the independent variables. Secondary outcomes will be considered exploratory.

The study is funded by the Jane Engelberg Memorial Foundation

Enrollment: 605 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Genetic counselors who provide direct clinical care
• Genetic counseling students
• Self-reported fluency in English

Exclusion criteria

• Living outside the US

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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605 participants in 3 patient groups

Meditation - Headspace

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in this arm will be asked to meditate daily for 10 minutes for 8 weeks. Meditation instruction will be provided by the commercially available app/website Headspace (provided to participants for free). Participants in this arm will have access to the other meditation arm once they finish the study.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Meditation

Meditation - Respite

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in this arm will be asked to meditate daily for 10 minutes for 8 weeks. Meditation instruction will be provided by Respite, a website created by the investigators for this study. Participants in this arm will have access to the other meditation arm once they finish the study.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Meditation

Observational

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in this arm will not receive any intervention. Their only study activity will be taking online surveys. They will have access to the two meditation arms once they finish the study.