Mindfulness for Medical Students

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Burnout is common among medical students. Previous studies had shown that mindfulness based interventions may improve burnout and quality of life in medical students. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is one of the most often used mindfulness based interventions. Medical students in the Chinese University of Hong Kong are invited to a MBCT on voluntary basis. They will be asked to fill in questionnaire that measures burnout, depression/anxiety, quality of life, and mindfulness at beginning and end of the MBCT. The pre-group and post-group data will be compared and analysed

Official Title
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Mindfulness for Medical Students

Conditions
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Mindfulness, Burnout, Professional

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT)


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Medical students studying in Chinese University of Hong Kong Exclusion Criteria: The investigators did not set any exclusion criteria

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Other: MBCT group<br>There is only 1 arm in the study. The MBCT will be conducted according to the treatment manual. The program consists of eight weekly sessions. In between sessions, participants are advised to practice mindfulness meditations for 40-50 minutes every day. The teachers of the program will teach on voluntary basis. The teachers must have attended the 1-year foundation course to teach mindfulness (available in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong), regular mindfulness practice and must have at least yearly mindfulness retreat. This is in accordance to the good practice guidelines developed in the UK for mindfulness teachers | Behavioral: mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT)<br>* a well described and structured intervention, which is published previously. The psychoeducation materials in the MBCT will be titrated to discuss about low mood and burnout<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) | The validated Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is a 22-item questionnaire that assesses three aspects of professional burnout syndrome which includes emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lack of personal accomplishment. It is widely used in research and has been widely used in studies about medical student well-being. In the scale, burnout is conceptualized as a continuous construct and participant is asked to rate their job related feelings using a 7-point Likert scale ranging from never to everyday. A high degree of burnout is defined as a respondent who scores low on the Personal Accomplishment subscale but high in the Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization subscales of the instrument | 8 weeks (before and after MBCT; after 8 weekly sessions) | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) | The 21-item DASS-21 questionnaire will be used to assess the presence of depression, anxiety and tension/stress with 7 items per subscale. Each item is ranked from 0 (did not apply to me at all) to 3 (applied to me very much, or most of the time). The total score is computed by adding scores of each item and multiplying them by a factor of 2. Therefore, the total possible score ranges from 0 to 126. The questionnaire exhibits adequate validity and internal consistency among clinical and non-clinical samples | 8 weeks (before and after MBCT; after 8 weekly sessions) | 
| the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQOL-BREF) | The WHOQOL-BREF consisted of 26 items representing four underlying domains: environment, psychological, social relationship and physical health. Scores within each domain can be transformed to a scale of 0-100, with higher scores represent better quality of life. The scales was used in medical students' burnout research | 8 weeks (before and after MBCT; after 8 weekly sessions) | 
| Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) | The FFMQ consisted of 39 items representing five underlying constructs: observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging of inner experience and non-reactivity to inner experience. Each item is rated from 1 (never or very rarely true) to 5 (very often or always true). Total Score can be obtained by summation of scores.The higher score represents a more mindful attitude in daily life. | 8 weeks (before and after MBCT; after 8 weekly sessions) |