Hair Cortisol Concentration, Perceived Stress, Mental Well-Being, and Cardiovascular Health in African American Older Adults: A Pilot Study.

(1) Background: African Americans experience high rates of psychological stress and hypertension, which increases their risk of cardiovascular disease with age. Easy-to-collect psychological and biological stress data are valuable to investigations of this association. Hair cortisol concentration (HCC), as a proxy biomarker of chronic stress exposure, provides such advantages in contrast to collection of multiple daily samples of saliva.

The Necessary Thread of Mindfulness Intervention Fidelity Assurance: Enabling an Organizational Strategy to Promote Health Care Professional Well-Being.

Purpose: A growing waitlist for Mindfulness in Motion (MIM), an evidence-based worksite mindfulness-based intervention, necessitated a training system with built in fidelity assurance to meet program demand. MIM was delivered as part of an organizational strategy in a large academic health center to enhance Health Care Professional (HCP) well-being. In order to ensure that the intervention was being delivered the same way to each cohort, a process to ensure intervention fidelity was developed for MIM.

Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Radiographers: An Exploration of Self-reported Symptoms.

Purpose: To explore self-reported musculoskeletal symptoms in radiographers registered by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) in the United States. There is a gap in the literature focusing on the unique set of risk factors for radiographers.

Methods: A subset of ARRT radiographers received an email invitation to complete an online survey that included questions about their experience with musculoskeletal symptoms and their exposure to potential risk factors for those symptoms.

Co-created health education intervention among older African American women living with hypertension.

Introduction: African Americans over the age of 60 years face disproportionate risk of developing hypertension, which can be mitigated with lifestyle changes. This study examines the acceptability and cost of a patient-centered, co-created health education intervention with older African Americans living with hypertension.

Methods: Twenty women participated in this study that included four weekly, two-hour group sessions centered on hypertension knowledge and calibration of home blood pressure monitors, stress and interpersonal relationship management, sleep and pain management, and healthy eating.

Embracing Change: A Mindful Medical Center Meets COVID-19.

Background: Healthcare professional (HCP) burnout transcends clinician job title and role, thus creating a need for interprofessional strategies to address burnout. The organizational framework of offering employer-sponsored mindfulness programming to HCPs sets the stage for an orchestrated, mindful response to COVID-19.

Objective: This single arm pre-post interventional research tested changes in measures of burnout, resilience, perceived stress and work engagement for interprofessional HCP faculty and students participating in , a novel eight-week multimodal evidenced-based onsite intervention.

Deep Relaxation Experience with Complementary Urban Zen Integrative Therapy: Qualitative Thematic Analysis.

Complementary Health Approaches (CHAs) are used as adjunctive therapy for managing symptoms associated with chronic conditions. Little evidence exists about how patients with pulmonary hypertension use or experience CHA. We explored patients' relaxation experience during Urban Zen Integrative Therapy (UZIT) and present qualitative thematic analysis results of 32 focused-debriefing-interviews.

Mindfulness in Motion and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) in Hypertensive African Americans.

Objectives: Hypertension increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease or related dementias. This pilot study's purpose was to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a novel intervention, Mindfulness in Motion (MIM) and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension DASH (MIM DASH), to improve diet, mindfulness, stress, and systolic blood pressure (BP) in older African Americans with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and hypertension.

Design: Cluster randomized controlled trial.

The Impact of Urban Zen Integrative Therapy on Symptoms and Health-Related Quality of Life for Patients with Pulmonary Hypertension.

Patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) experience distressing symptoms that can undermine quality of life (QoL) and treatment adherence. Complementary health approaches are known to help manage symptoms of chronic conditions and may have therapeutic benefits in PH. To explore the impact of Urban Zen Integrative Therapy (UZIT) on PH-related symptoms.

Intervention fidelity monitoring of Urban Zen Integrative Therapy (UZIT) for persons with pulmonary hypertension.

Background: Systematic and consistent dose delivery is critical in intervention research. Few studies testing complementary health approach (CHA) interventions describe intervention fidelity monitoring (IFM) and measurement.

Objective: To describe methodological processes in establishing and measuring consistent dose, delivery, and duration of a multi-component CHA intervention.

Mindfulness in Motion for People with Multiple Sclerosis: A Feasibility Study.

Background: Mindfulness in Motion is an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention that uses yoga movement, mindfulness meditation, and relaxing music. This study examined the feasibility of using Mindfulness in Motion in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and the effect of this program on stress, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and quality of life in people with MS.

Methods: Twenty-two people with MS completed the 8-week mindfulness program as well as assessments 1 week before and after the intervention.

A Pragmatic Introduction of Mindfulness in a Continuing Education Setting: Exploring Personal Experience, Bridging to Professional Practice.

Context: Continuing Medical Education and Continuing Professional Education (CME/CPE) provide a context through which to introduce practicing Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) to emerging mind/body approaches.

Objective: To introduce mindfulness to practicing HCPs for application in their practice through an experiential CME/CPE session.

Design: This descriptive study included surveys administered in the context of a CME/CPE session at professional meetings, as well as a three-month follow-up survey.

Recruiting Endometrial Cancer Survivors to Studies Examining Lifestyle Behaviors and Quality of Life: Challenges Faced and Lessons Learned.

There are a growing number of cancer survivors in the USA. Despite lifestyle behaviors being strongly associated with morbidity and mortality following primary treatment, recruitment to clinical research studies that aim to improve such behaviors remains a significant challenge. Furthermore, pilot and feasibility studies are critical for the refinement of research methods and form an important training opportunity for early career scientists.

A Mindfulness-Based Lifestyle Intervention for Obese, Inactive Endometrial Cancer Survivors: A Feasibility Study.

Background: Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) to address self-regulation and lifestyle behaviors (diet, physical activity) may benefit endometrial cancer survivors (ECS), who are at increased risk for morbidity and mortality associated with obesity. However, the acceptability of mindfulness training and whether it can augment behavior change in ECS is unknown. We aimed to examine; 1) the feasibility of the Mindfulness in Motion + Diet (MIM+D) intervention and 2) the preliminary efficacy of MIM+D for improving mindfulness, diet, PA and health-related quality of life (HRQL).

A healthcare utilization cost comparison between employees receiving a worksite mindfulness or a diet/exercise lifestyle intervention to matched controls 5 years post intervention.

Objective: To compare healthcare costs and utilization among participants in a study of two active lifestyle interventions implemented in the workplace and designed to foster awareness of and attention to health with a propensity score matched control group.

Design And Setting: We retrospectively compared changes in healthcare (HC) utilization among participants in the mindfulness intervention (n=84) and the diet/exercise intervention (n=86) to a retrospectively matched control group (n=258) drawn for this study. The control group was matched from the non-participant population on age, gender, relative risk score, and HC expenditures in the 9 month preceding the study.

Perceived stress predicts allergy flares.

Background: A relation between stress and symptoms of rhinitis has not been established.

Objective: To determine if participants' reporting of allergy flares correlated with perceived emotional stress, depression, mood, and a biomarker of stress (cortisol).

Methods: This study was a secondary analysis of 179 university employees who participated in a study evaluating the influence of several lifestyle interventions on health symptoms and inflammation.

Effects of low-dose mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR-ld) on working adults.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has produced behavioral, psychological, and physiological benefits, but these programs typically require a substantial time commitment from the participants. This study assessed the effects of a shortened (low-dose [ld]) work-site MBSR intervention (MBSR-ld) on indicators of stress in healthy working adults to determine if results similar to those obtained in traditional MBSR could be demonstrated. Participants were randomized into MBSR-ld and wait-list control groups.