Mindfulness meditation apps are associated with significant health benefits, yet many new app subscribers have low engagement and are unlikely to attain these benefits.This study examined the user characteristics that predict meditation app usage during the first eight weeks after subscribing. New meditation app subscribers (N = 304) completed a baseline survey which measured demographics,...
Forming a habit of practicing mindfulness meditation around the same time of day is one strategy that may support long-term maintenance and in turn improve physical and mental health. The purpose of this study was to identify common patterns in the time of day of meditation associated with long-term meditation app use to assess the importance of temporal consistency for maintaining meditation...
Existing research has identified an increased risk of depression among autistic adults, which can negatively impact their adaptive functioning abilities and socioeconomic outcomes. Mobile app-based meditation is a feasible, accessible, and effective self-care solution for depression among neurotypical adults, but there is limited evidence for the long-term benefits of app-based meditation among...
Mindfulness meditation apps are used by millions of adults in the USA to improve mental health. However, many new app subscribers quickly abandon their use. The purpose of this study was to determine the behavioral, demographic, and socioeconomic factors associated with the abandonment of meditation apps during the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey was distributed to subscribers of a popular...
Chronic (ie, long-term) elevated stress is associated with a number of mental and physical health conditions. Mindfulness meditation mobile apps are a promising tool for stress self-management that can overcome several barriers associated with in-person interventions; however, to date, poor app-based intervention adherence has limited the efficacy of these mobile health tools. Anchoring, or...
The intensive data typically collected by mobile health (mHealth) apps allows factors associated with persistent use to be investigated, which is an important objective given users' well-known struggles with sustaining healthy behavior. Data from a commercial meditation app (n=14,879; 899,071 total app uses) were analyzed to assess the validity of commonly given habit formation advice to...
Meditation with mobile apps has been shown to improve mental and physical health. However, regular, long-term meditation app use is needed to maintain these health benefits, and many people have a difficult time maintaining engagement with meditation apps over time. Our goal was to determine the length of the timeframe over which usage data must be collected before future app abandonment can be...
BackgroundMindfulness meditation smartphone apps may improve mental health but lack evidence-based behavioral strategies to encourage their regular use for attaining mental health benefits. In October 2019, the Calm mindfulness meditation app introduced a mood check-in feature, but its effects on participation in meditation have yet to be tested. ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to...
Introduction: The purpose of this paper was to describe pregnant women’s COVID-19 perceptions, mental health and meditation habits compared to non-pregnant women in a sample of meditation mobile app subscribers. Methods: Women completed the “COVID-19 Health and Well-being Survey” which assessed perceptions of COVID-19 (i.e., worry, attention to news, stress from social distancing), perceived...