Impact of a University-Wide Interdisciplinary Mind-Body Skills Program on Student Mental and Emotional Well-Being

Brenna K Novak; Anna Gebhardt; Harini Pallerla; Susan Blocksom McDonald; Aviad Haramati; Sian Cotton

doi:10.1177/2164956120973983

Impact of a University-Wide Interdisciplinary Mind-Body Skills Program on Student Mental and Emotional Well-Being

Glob Adv Health Med. 2020 Nov 23:9:2164956120973983. doi: 10.1177/2164956120973983. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Brenna K Novak¹, Anna Gebhardt^{1

2}, Harini Pallerla³, Susan Blocksom McDonald³, Aviad Haramati⁴, Sian Cotton^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Integrative Health and Wellness, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio.
² Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Athens, Ohio.
³ Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio.
⁴ Department of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, District of Columbia.

Abstract

Background: Positive effects of mind-body skills programs on participant well-being have been reported in health professions students. The success seen with medical students at this university led to great interest in expanding the mind-body skills program so students in other disciplines could benefit from the program.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a 9-week mind-body skills program on the mental and emotional well-being of multidisciplinary students compared to controls. We also sought to determine if the program's effects were sustained at 1-year follow-up.

Methods: A cross-sectional pre-post survey was administered online via SurveyMonkey to participants of a 9-week mind-body skills program and a control group of students from 7 colleges at a public university from 2017-2019. Students were assessed on validated measures of stress, positive/negative affect, resilience, depression, anxiety, fatigue, sleep disturbance, mindfulness, empathy, and burnout. Scores were analyzed between-groups and within-groups using bivariate and multivariate analyses. A 1-year follow-up was completed on a subset of participants and controls.

Results: 279 participants and 247 controls completed the pre-survey and post-survey (79% response rate; 71% female, 68% white, mean age = 25 years). Participants showed significant decreases in stress, negative affect, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and burnout, while positive affect, resilience, mindfulness, and empathy increased significantly (P < .05). Only sleep disturbance showed a significant decrease in the control group. Follow-up in a subset of participants showed that only mindfulness remained elevated at 1-year (P < .05), whereas the significant changes in other well-being measures were not sustained.

Conclusion: Participation in a 9-week mind-body skills program led to significant improvement in indicators of well-being in multidisciplinary students. A pilot 1-year follow-up suggests that effects are only sustained for mindfulness, but not other parameters. Future programming should focus on implementing mind-body skills booster sessions to help sustain the well-being benefits.

Keywords: burnout; mental health; mind-body; mindfulness; student well-being.