Mindfulness-based mobile applications: literature review and analysis of current features.
Inmaculada Plaza, Marcelo Marcos Piva Demarzo, Paola Herrera-Mercadal, Javier García-campayo
JMIR mHealth and uHealth November 1, 2013 DOI: 10.2196/mhealth.2733 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Systematic review Randomized Pilot study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Mindfulness-based mobile applications available in online markets and literature |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Evidence-based medicine Health informatics Mhealth Mobile health Personalized education Social networks |
| Key findings | No randomized clinical trials evaluating the impact of mindfulness-based mobile applications on mindfulness training or health indicators were found, and the potential for such applications remains largely unexplored. |
Abstract
Interest in mindfulness has increased exponentially, particularly in the fields of psychology and medicine. The trait or state of mindfulness is significantly related to several indicators of psychological health, and mindfulness-based therapies are effective at preventing and treating many chronic diseases. Interest in mobile applications for health promotion and disease self-management is also growing. Despite the explosion of interest, research on both the design and potential uses of mindfulness-based mobile applications (MBMAs) is scarce. Our main objective was to study the features and functionalities of current MBMAs and compare them to current evidence-based literature in the health and clinical setting. We searched online vendor markets, scientific journal databases, and grey literature related to MBMAs. We included mobile applications that featured a mindfulness-based component related to training or daily practice of mindfulness techniques. We excluded opinion-based articles from the literature. The literature search resulted in 11 eligible matches, two of which completely met our selection criteria-a pilot study designed to evaluate the feasibility of a MBMA to train the practice of "walking meditation," and an exploratory study of an application consisting of mood reporting scales and mindfulness-based mobile therapies. The online market search eventually analyzed 50 available MBMAs. Of these, 8% (4/50) did not work, thus we only gathered information about language, downloads, or prices. The most common operating system was Android. Of the analyzed apps, 30% (15/50) have both a free and paid version. MBMAs were devoted to daily meditation practice (27/46, 59%), mindfulness training (6/46, 13%), assessments or tests (5/46, 11%), attention focus (4/46, 9%), and mixed objectives (4/46, 9%). We found 108 different resources, of which the most used were reminders, alarms, or bells (21/108, 19.4%), statistics tools (17/108, 15.7%), audio tracks (15/108, 13.9%), and educational texts (11/108, 10.2%). Daily, weekly, monthly statistics, or reports were provided by 37% (17/46) of the apps. 28% (13/46) of them permitted access to a social network. No information about sensors was available. The analyzed applications seemed not to use any external sensor. English was the only language of 78% (39/50) of the apps, and only 8% (4/50) provided information in Spanish. 20% (9/46) of the apps have interfaces that are difficult to use. No specific apps exist for professionals or, at least, for both profiles (users and professionals). We did not find any evaluations of health outcomes resulting from the use of MBMAs. While a wide selection of MBMAs seem to be available to interested people, this study still shows an almost complete lack of evidence supporting the usefulness of those applications. We found no randomized clinical trials evaluating the impact of these applications on mindfulness training or health indicators, and the potential for mobile mindfulness applications remains largely unexplored.
Comparable studies
Other systematic reviews and meta-analyses on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being Diverse adult clinical populations | 2014 | Meta-analysis | n = 3,515 |
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Stress Management in Healthy People: A Review and Meta-Analysis Healthy subjects | 2009 | Systematic review and meta-analysis | |
| The psychological effects of meditation: A meta-analysis. Nonclinical groups of adult meditators | 2012 | Meta-analysis | n = 163 |
| Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Prevention of Depressive Relapse Adults with recurrent depression in full or partial remission | 2016 | Meta-analysis of individual patient data from randomized controlled trials | n = 1,258 |
| Mindfulness‐Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness‐Based Cognitive Therapy – a systematic review of randomized controlled trials | 2011 | Systematic review |
Citations in the library
Cited by 49
- Web-Based Mindfulness Interventions for People With Physical Health Conditions: Systematic Review Journal of Medical Internet Research August 31, 2017
- Mindfulness-Based Mobile Apps and Their Impact on Well-Being in Nonclinical Populations: Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials Journal of Medical Internet Research June 21, 2023
- Impact of warm mindfulness on emotion regulation: A randomized controlled effectiveness trial. Health Psychology July 6, 2023
- Mindfulness Training for Primary Care for Portuguese-Speaking Immigrants: A Pilot Study Frontiers in Psychiatry September 9, 2021
- Development and Evaluation of a Mindfulness-Based Mobile Intervention for Perinatal Mental Health: Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research January 17, 2025
and 44 more in the library
Cites 10
- How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective Perspectives on Psychological Science October 14, 2011
- The psychological effects of meditation: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin May 14, 2012
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, and Zen Meditation for Depression, Anxiety, Pain, and Psychological Distress Journal of Psychiatric Practice July 1, 2012
- Multimedia-assisted breathwalk-aware system. IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering December 1, 2012
- Meditative therapies for reducing anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Depression and Anxiety June 14, 2012
and 5 more in the library