Autonomic and Gut Microbiome Correlates of the Online Mindfulness- and Compassion-Based Intercare Program for Parental Burnout: Exploratory Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

Objectives: To examine exploratory autonomic and gut microbiome correlates associated with an online mindfulness- and compassion-based intervention for parental burnout.

Methods: This exploratory secondary analysis used data from a three-arm randomized clinical trial conducted in Chile. The parent trial included 595 women with at least one child who teleworked at least one day per week. Participants were allocated to a mindfulness- and compassion-based intervention for parental burnout (IBAP-BP), an active control (AC), or waitlist. The biological substudy included fecal microbiome (IBAP-BP, n = 15; AC, n = 17) and ECG/heart rate variability data (IBAP-BP, n = 17; AC, n = 21). Exploratory biological outcomes included lnRMSSD, gut microbial diversity/composition, and predicted microbial functional pathways inferred from 16S rRNA sequencing and PICRUSt2.

Results: Both IBAP-BP and AC reduced parental burnout relative to waitlist at 6 months (IBAP-BP vs WL: β = −0.80; 95% CI, −1.38 to −0.23; AC vs WL: β = −1.08; 95% CI, −1.63 to −0.54). In the biological substudy, IBAP-BP showed higher lnRMSSD at post-intervention (β = 0.62; 95% CI, 0.30 to 0.93) and higher phylogenetic α-diversity at 6 months (β = 0.17; 95% CI, 0.05 to 0.29) compared with AC. Three bacterial genera and one predicted tyrosine degradation pathway differed between groups after false discovery rate correction.

Conclusions: An online mindfulness- and compassion-based intervention was associated with reductions in parental burnout and preliminary autonomic and gut microbiome differences. Findings should be interpreted as exploratory and hypothesis-generating. Trial Registration : ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05833269.