The Effect of Religious Practices on Mental and Spiritual Health

Biola University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Stress

Treatments: Behavioral: pray.com app (autonomous use); Behavioral: pray.com app (meditative prayer condition)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05622604

F22-011

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to test the effects of using a religious mobile app (i.e., Pray.com) in participants who have high levels of stress. The main question it aims to answer is:

•What are the effects of using Pray.com on stress in individuals who report high levels of stress?

Participants will complete measures at baseline (i.e., Time 1), four-weeks (i.e., Time 2), and eight weeks (i.e., Time 3). Participants will be randomly assigned one of three conditions: (1) autonomous use (directed to use the app daily), (2) meditative prayer condition (directed to use this feature of the app daily), or (3) wait-list control condition.

Full description

Participants (N = 300) will be adults recruited through social media and faith-based organizations. Participants will first complete a brief screener to determine eligibility for the study.

Eligible participants will be invited to participate in the study. Participants will read an informed consent document that will give information about the study and their rights as participants. Participants will be given the opportunity to contact the research team and ask questions. If they agree to participate, participants will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions. Condition 1 is the control condition (i.e., no intervention condition). In Condition 2, participants will be given a free subscription to the Pray.com app and will be directed to use the app five days per week (i.e., autonomous use condition). In Condition 3, participants will be given a free subscription to the Pray.com app and will be directed to listen to a meditation prayer five days per week (i.e., meditative prayer condition). Participants will receive periodic reminders on their phone if they have not used the app.

All participants will fill out a series of online questionnaires monthly for a two-month time-period (i.e., Baseline / Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3). Participants will receive a link from the research team when it is time for them to fill out their questionnaire via a secure online data collection portal. After finishing the study, participants will be debriefed and given the opportunity to ask questions about their participation.

Enrollment: 312 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• over the age of 18
• own a smart phone and be willing to download a mobile app
• willing to engage in a Christian practice on a mobile app
• score of 14 or greater on the Perceived Stress Scale (indicating at least a moderate level of stress)

Exclusion criteria

• n/a

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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312 participants in 3 patient groups

no intervention condition

No Intervention group

Description:

no intervention

autonomous use condition

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be given a free subscription to the Pray.com app and will be directed to use the app five days per week.

Treatment:

Behavioral: pray.com app (autonomous use)

meditative prayer condition

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be given a free subscription to the Pray.com app and will be directed to listen to a meditation prayer five days per week.

Treatment:

Behavioral: pray.com app (meditative prayer condition)