A technology-assisted, brief mind-body intervention to improve the waiting room experience: Randomized quality improvement study

Abstract

Background: Patients waiting for chemotherapy can experience stress, anxiety, nausea, and pain. Acupressure and meditation have been shown to control such symptoms. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of an integrative medicine app to educate patients about these self-care tools in chemotherapy waiting rooms. Methods: We screened and enrolled cancer patients in chemotherapy waiting rooms at two Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center locations. Patients were randomly assigned into an intervention arm in which subjects watched acupressure and meditation instructional videos or a control arm in which they watched a time- and attention-matched integrative oncology lecture video. Before and after watching the videos, we asked the patients to rate four key symptoms: Stress, anxiety, nausea, and pain. We performed the analysis of covariance to detect differences between the two arms postintervention while controlling for baseline symptoms. Results: A total of 223 patients were enrolled in the study: 113 patients were enrolled in the intervention arm and 110 patients were enrolled in the control arm. In both groups, patients showed significant reductions in stress and anxiety from baseline (all P