Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Apr 13;8(4):e28479.
doi: 10.2196/28479.

The Effect of Meditation and Physical Activity on the Mental Health Impact of COVID-19-Related Stress and Attention to News Among Mobile App Users in the United States: Cross-sectional Survey

Jennifer Green  1 , Jennifer Huberty  1 , Megan Puzia  2 , Chad Stecher  1
Affiliations

The Effect of Meditation and Physical Activity on the Mental Health Impact of COVID-19-Related Stress and Attention to News Among Mobile App Users in the United States: Cross-sectional Survey

Jennifer Green et al. JMIR Ment Health. .

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has been declared an international public health emergency, and it may have long-lasting effects on people's mental health. There is a need to identify effective health behaviors to mitigate the negative mental health impact of COVID-19.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to (1) examine the regional differences in mental health and COVID-19-related worry, attention to news, and stress, in light of the state-level prevalence of COVID-19 cases; (2) estimate the associations between mental health and COVID-19-related worry, attention to news, and stress and health behavior engagement (ie, physical activity, mindfulness meditation); and (3) explore the mediating effect of health behavior engagement on the associations between mental health and COVID-19-related worry, attention to news, and stress.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was distributed to a sample of US adult paying subscribers to the Calm app (data were collected from April 22 to June 3, 2020). The survey assessed COVID-19-related worry, attention to news, and stress; health behavior engagement; and mental health (ie, perceived stress, posttraumatic stress disorder, and anxiety and depression). Statistical analyses were performed using R software. Differences in COVID-19-related worry, attention to news, and stress and mental health by location were assessed using t tests and chi-square tests. Logistic and ordinary least squares models were used to regress mental health and health behavior on COVID-19-related worry, attention to news, and stress; moreover, causal mediation analysis was used to estimate the significance of the mediation effects.

Results: The median age of the respondents (N=8392) was 47 years (SD 13.8). Participants in the Mid-Atlantic region (New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) reported higher levels of stress, more severe depression symptoms, greater worry about COVID-19, paying more attention to COVID-19-related news, and more stress related to social distancing recommendations than participants living in other regions. The association between worry about COVID-19 and perceived stress was significantly mediated by changes in physical activity (P<.001), strength of meditation habit (P<.001), and stopping meditation (P=.046). The association between worry about COVID-19 and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms was significantly mediated by changes in physical activity (P<.001) and strength of meditation habit (P<.001).

Conclusions: Our findings describe the mental health impact of COVID-19 and outline how continued participation in health behaviors such as physical activity and mindfulness meditation reduce worsening of mental health due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These data have important implications for public health agencies and health organizations to promote the maintenance of health habits to reduce the residual mental health burden of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; coronavirus; health behavior; mHealth; mental health; mindfulness meditation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: JH is currently the Director of Science at Calm. JH had been conducting research with Calm as a partner for almost 5 years before becoming the Director of Science and the Scientific Advisory Board. Her role is to ensure the quality of Calm’s science. There were no financial incentives from the growth of Calm for any author.

References

    1. Mental health and psychosocial considerations during the COVID-19 outbreak. World Health Organization. 2020. Mar 18, [2021-04-05]. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/mental-health-consi....
    1. Fiorillo A, Gorwood P. The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and implications for clinical practice. Eur Psychiatry. 2020 Apr 01;63(1):e32. doi: 10.1192/j.eurpsy.2020.35. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/32234102 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bao Y, Sun Y, Meng S, Shi J, Lu L. 2019-nCoV epidemic: address mental health care to empower society. Lancet. 2020 Feb 22;395(10224):e37–e38. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30309-3. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/32043982 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rajkumar RP. COVID-19 and mental health: A review of the existing literature. Asian J Psychiatr. 2020 Aug;52:102066. doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102066. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/32302935 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fitzpatrick KM, Harris C, Drawve G. Fear of COVID-19 and the mental health consequences in America. Psychol Trauma. 2020 Aug;12(S1):S17–S21. doi: 10.1037/tra0000924. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources