Nonrandomized Open Trial of a Mindfulness- and Compassion-Based Selective Preventive Mobile Health Intervention for Forcibly Displaced People.
Mindfulness October 2, 2025 Shani Zohar Puris, Kim Yuval, Gebreyohans Gebremariam et al.
A nonrandomized open trial tested the feasibility of Mindfulness-SOS, a lay- and minimally guided mobile health mindfulness- and compassion-based intervention adapted for diverse forcibly displaced people, among 60 Eritrean asylum-seekers in an unstable urban setting in Israel during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifty-eight participants showed high adherence to session modules and moderate overall adherence. Higher pre-intervention post-traumatic stress symptoms and post-migration living difficulties predicted lower engagement with meditation practice exercises. Greater engagement with meditation exercises was associated with less deterioration in depression and anxiety, but not with change in post-traumatic stress symptoms, from pre- to post-intervention. Mindfulness-SOS may be a feasible selective preventive intervention for asylum-seekers in stressful post-displacement settings.