Poster Session 2
Noa Gilad, MD (she/her/hers)
MFM fellow
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Swati Agrawal, MBBS, MSc
Assistant professor, maternal-fetal medicine specialist
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Klaudia Szczech, MSc
Saint Michael's Hospital
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Alexandra Berezowsky, MD
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Amir Naeh, MD
Hillel Yaffe Medical Center
Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, HaMerkaz, Israel
Howard Berger, MD
Head, Maternal Fetal Medicine
St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Oregon, Canada
Sleep disturbances are commonly reported during pregnancy, are difficult to treat and are associated with adverse perinatal outcomes. We aimed to assess the feasibility of the use of a mobile mindfulness application (App) in pregnant people with self-reported sleep disturbance to improve sleep quality and perinatal outcomes.
Study Design:
Pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT). Pregnant people with a singleton pregnancy, between 20-30 weeks gestation and self-reporting sleep disturbances were assessed for recruitment. Participants were randomized to either the use of a standard pregnancy sleep leaflet or to the addition of funded access to a commercially available mindfulness App. Both groups received and were instructed to use a sleep actigraph. The co-primary outcomes were: 1) recruitment rate and quantitative use of the mindfulness app. 2) Sleep quality actigraph measures and the change in PSQI score. Perinatal outcomes were collected and reported.
Results: Of 1576 potential participants,629 (39.9%) declined, 706 were not assessed and 113 were excluded leaving 128 randomized participants, 64 to each group. Baseline characteristics did not differ between groups. In the mindfulness group 35/64 (54.7%) used the App for an average of 9.9 (0.02 – 90) minutes per day and a mean of 8 (1-47) sessions per pregnancy. Actigraph use was similar with 30/64 (46.9%) and 32/64 (50%) providing data in the mindfulness and control groups respectively. No significant reduction was found in PSQI scores, actigraph measures or measures of stress, anxiety or depression (Table 1). Perinatal outcomes did not differ between groups except for the rate of post-partum hemorrhage which was increased in the intervention group (11.9% vs 1.6%, P=0.03).
Conclusion: Performing a RCT using a mindfulness App is feasible, but recruitment and usage rates were lower than expected. Although exploratory, the use of a mindfulness App did not appear to improve sleep parameters when compared to routine sleep education.
