Dataset Information

Preferences of University Students for a Psychological Intervention Designed to Improve Sleep: Focus Group Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Many university students have difficulties with sleep; therefore, effective psychological treatments are needed. Most research on psychological treatments to improve sleep has been conducted with middle-aged and older adults, which means it is unclear whether existing psychological treatments are helpful for young adult university students.

Objective

This study aimed to discover university student preferences for a psychological intervention to improve sleep quality.

Methods

Focus groups were conducted over 3 stages to examine students' views regarding content, format, and session duration for a psychological intervention to improve sleep. A thematic analysis was conducted to analyze participant responses.

Results

In total, 30 participants attended small focus group discussions. Three key themes were identified: (1) program development, (2) help-seeking, and (3) student sleep characteristics. Program development subthemes were program format, program content, and engagement facilitators. Help-seeking subthemes were when to seek help, where to access help, stigma, and barriers. Student sleep characteristics subthemes were factors disturbing sleep and consequences of poor sleep.

Conclusions

Students emphasized the need for a sleep intervention with an in-person and social component, individualized content, and ways to monitor their progress. Participants did not think there was a stigma associated with seeking help for sleep problems. Students identified the lack of routine in their lifestyle, academic workload, and the pressure of multiple demands as key contributors to sleep difficulties.

SUBMITTER: Tadros M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10485721 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Preferences of University Students for a Psychological Intervention Designed to Improve Sleep: Focus Group Study.

Tadros Michelle M Li Sophie S Upton Emily E Newby Jill J Werner-Seidler Aliza A

JMIR human factors 20230824

<h4>Background</h4>Many university students have difficulties with sleep; therefore, effective psychological treatments are needed. Most research on psychological treatments to improve sleep has been conducted with middle-aged and older adults, which means it is unclear whether existing psychological treatments are helpful for young adult university students.<h4>Objective</h4>This study aimed to discover university student preferences for a psychological intervention to improve sleep quality.<h4 ...[more]

PMID: 37616036

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Project description:BackgroundYoung adults' mental health is characterized by relatively high rates of stress and anxiety and low levels of help-seeking behavior. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions could offer a cost-effective and readily available avenue to provide personalized support to young adults. More research needs to be directed at the development of mHealth interventions targeting youths specifically, as well as at determining how to reach young people and how to effectively intervene to improve psychological well-being.ObjectiveThe objective was to gather perceptions from high school students to inform the development of a prototype mHealth intervention aiming to promote psychological well-being.MethodsA mixed methods design was used to (1) investigate high school students' perceptions about stress and its consequences in daily life, as well as their ability to cope with stress, and (2) explore their preferences and design recommendations for an mHealth intervention to improve psychological well-being. Students from two high schools in the southeast of Sweden were invited to take part in the study. Recruitment of high school students was completed over a 6-week period, between October 25 and December 7, 2018. Recruitment entailed inviting students to complete a stress test (ie, screening and feedback) on their mobile phones. After completing the stress test, all participants were invited to complete a follow-up questionnaire and take part in telephone interviews.ResultsA total of 149 high school students completed the stress test, of which 68 completed the questionnaire. There were 67 free-text comments distributed across the items. The majority of participants (55/68, 81%) stated that they coped with stress better or in the same way after engaging in the stress test, due to time management, dialogue with others, and self-refection. A total of 4 out of 68 participants (6%)-3 female students (75%) and 1 male student (25%)-took part in telephone interviews. Three main themes were identified from the interview data: perceptions about stress, design features, and intervention features.ConclusionsStress was described by the students as a condition caused by high demands set by oneself and the social environment that impacted their physical health, personal relationships, school performance, and emotional well-being. Participants claimed that mHealth interventions need to be clearly tailored to a young age group, be evidence based, and offer varied types of support, such as information about stress, exercises to help organize tasks, self-assessment, coping tools, and recommendations of other useful websites, literature, blogs, self-help books, or role models. Mobile phones seemed to be a feasible and acceptable platform for the delivery of an intervention.

Project description:Background Perceived stress, burnout, and poor sleep quality are high among medical students. Interventions designed to target these issues are necessary to promote the health and well-being of medical students. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to assess the feasibility of implementing a sunrise alarm clock intervention with medical students and 2) to evaluate the impact of the intervention on perceived stress, burnout scores, and sleep quality. Methods We conducted a feasibility study to evaluate the efficacy of a two-week, sunrise alarm clock intervention in combination with electronic device removal at bedtime. We assessed first- and second-year medical students’ perceived stress, burnout scores, including Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Low Sense of Personal Achievement, and sleep quality before and after the intervention. In addition, we measured smartphone addiction prior to the intervention. Results A total of 57 students consented to participate, of which 55 completed both the pre- and post-assessments (3.5% attrition). The mean age of the participants was 24.8?±?1.9?years, 50.9% (n =?29) identified as women, and 68.4% (n =?39) identified as white. Pre-intervention, 42.1% (n =?24) of students met criteria for smartphone addiction and 77.2% (n =?44) met criteria for poor sleep quality. In addition, 22.8% (n =?13) of participants had high emotional exhaustion, 64.9% (n =?31) high depersonalization, and 42.1% (n =?24) low sense of personal accomplishment prior to the intervention. Following the two-week intervention, participants showed improvements in emotional exhaustion (p =?0.001, Cohen’s d?=?0.353), depersonalization (p?=?0.001, Cohen’s d?=?0.411) low sense of personal accomplishment (p =?0.023, Cohen’s d?=?0.275), perceived stress (p <?.001, Cohen’s d?=?.334), and sleep quality (p <?0.001, Cohen’s d?=?0.925). The number of participants who reported poor sleep quality decreased to 41.8% (n =?23), demonstrating a significant decline (p =?0.026). Participants also improved subjective sleep quality (p <?0.001, Cohen’s d?=?1.033), sleep duration (p =?0.001, Cohen’s d?=?0.431), sleep latency (p?<?0.001, Cohen’s d?=?0.433), and sleep efficiency (p =?0.021, Cohen’s d?=?0.673). Conclusions These findings suggest that the two-week sunrise alarm clock protocol with electronic device removal was effective in improving sleep quality and reducing burnout scores, and perceived stress. However, additional research comparing this intervention to a proper control group is needed to draw meaningful conclusions about the effectiveness of this intervention.

Project description:BackgroundPsychological distress is prevalent among university students. However, the availability of evidence-based mental health treatment remains limited in many low- and middle-income countries, including Indonesia. Internet-delivered, mindfulness-based interventions that reduce distress have potential for treating university student distress at scale. Unfortunately, evidence-based, internet-delivered mindfulness treatments are not yet available in Indonesia. Cultural adaptation of established evidence-based, internet-delivered mindfulness interventions is needed.ObjectiveIn this paper, we describe the process of culturally adapting an Australian internet-delivered mindfulness program (Introduction to Mindfulness) to be relevant and appropriate for treating Indonesian university students' psychological distress.MethodsTo assist the cultural adaptation process, we used a systematic cultural adaptation framework and a mixed methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods. In study 1 (information gathering), we administered an internet-delivered questionnaire to Indonesian university students (n=248) to examine their preferences regarding an internet-delivered mindfulness intervention. In study 2 (preliminary design), a draft program was developed and independently reviewed by Indonesian stakeholders. Stakeholders (n=25) included local Indonesian mindfulness and mental health professionals (n=6) and university students (n=19), who were selected to maximize sample representativeness regarding personal and professional characteristics. To evaluate the initial design and cultural congruence of the internet-delivered mindfulness program in the Indonesian context, we conducted interviews and focus groups with stakeholders. Stakeholders also completed the Cultural Relevance Questionnaire.ResultsIn study 1, most Indonesian university students (240/248, 96.8%) reported openness to an internet-delivered mindfulness program. Most of interested students (127/240, 52.9%) preferred the length of the program to be 3 to 4 sessions, with 45.8% (110/240) preferring brief lessons taking only 15 to 30 minutes to complete. They (194/240, 80.8%) recommended that the program be accessible both through websites and mobile phones. In study 2, Indonesian stakeholders generally found the internet-delivered program to be highly culturally appropriate in terms of language, concepts, context, treatment goals, and depictions of students' emotional and behavioral experiences. However, stakeholders also recommended some specific adaptations regarding the program's delivery model (eg, combining visual and audio modalities when delivering psychoeducation), cultural components (eg, including more social and spiritual activities), program practicality (eg, including rewards to promote engagement), and design elements (eg, including additional culturally relevant illustrations). Following stakeholder feedback, a new culturally adapted Indonesian internet-delivered mindfulness program called Program Intervensi Mindfulness Daring Mahasiswa Indonesia was created.ConclusionsThis study highlights the process and importance of cultural adaptation of an evidence-based mindfulness treatment and demonstrates how this may be achieved for internet-delivered psychotherapy programs. We found that a culturally adapted internet-delivered mindfulness program was relevant for Indonesian students with some adjustments to the programs' content and delivery. Future research is now needed to evaluate the clinical benefit of this program.

Project description:BackgroundSleep problems occur in many university students which affects their mental health and daily functioning. Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) has been proven effective in adults but research in university students, who struggle to maintain a 24-hour rhythm, is still limited. We hypothesize that a guided digital CBT-I intervention, enriched with components on the biological clock ('i-Sleep & BioClock') will be effective in reducing insomnia severity and improving mental health outcomes for students with sleep problems.ObjectivesWe aim to evaluate the effectiveness of a guided online sleep and biological clock self-help intervention in improving sleep, depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, functioning, academic performance, and quality of life in university students at 6 weeks and 18 weeks.MethodsThis is a two-arm parallel-group superiority randomized controlled trial, comparing a 5-week guided online 'i-Sleep & BioClock' intervention to online psychoeducation (PE). We aim to include 192 university students (Bachelor, Master, and PhD) with at least subthreshold insomnia (Insomnia Severity Index ≥10), aged ≥16, who can speak Dutch or English. We are excluding students with current risk for suicide or night shifts. The primary outcome is insomnia severity. Secondary outcomes include sleep estimates (sleep and light exposure diary), depression, anxiety, functioning, quality of life, and academic performance. The effectiveness of the intervention compared to online PE will be evaluated using linear mixed models.DiscussionThe current study tests the effectiveness of an online self-help intervention for university students who suffer from sleep problems. This trial builds upon an open feasibility study and will provide evidence of an online guided self-help program for students. The findings of this study will determine the potential wider dissemination of the intervention to address the high need for available and accessible help for students experiencing insomnia.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.Gov (NCT06023693), registered on August 3rd, 2023.

Dataset Information

Preferences of University Students for a Psychological Intervention Designed to Improve Sleep: Focus Group Study.

Background

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Preferences of University Students for a Psychological Intervention Designed to Improve Sleep: Focus Group Study.

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