Objectives

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide and is highly comorbid with emotional disorders. Mindfulness meditation can improve health outcomes in people with CVD. Calm is the most popular smartphone meditation app, but the usage patterns among people with CVD have not been explored.

Methods

We conducted a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional survey study among N = 1512 Calm subscribers with CVD to explore user characteristics, usage patterns, and health changes, and compare the results among those with and without co-occurring anxiety or depression.

Results

Users were primarily white (83%), female (74%), and had relatively high income (45% with > $100,000/year). Most (67%) used Calm at least 5 ×/week and started using Calm to help with sleep (69%) and stress (67%). More users with anxiety or depression, compared to CVD-only, started Calm to help with stress (71% vs. 64%) and anxiety or depression (77% vs. 37%), and used components incorporating sounds and physical movements more often (all p’s < 0.05). Most participants reported changes in sleep, stress, and physical and mental health (60–79%), though changes were more prevalent among those with anxiety or depression (p’s < 0.001). More frequent Calm use was associated with greater health changes (p’s < 0.05).

Conclusions

Calm users with CVD use the app regularly to help with health promotion and, particularly those with anxiety or depression, perceive health changes from their Calm use. Randomized controlled trials are needed to establish the efficacy and optimal dose of Calm use for people with CVD.

中文翻译：

---

静默冥想应用程序在心血管疾病患者中的使用方式

目标

心血管疾病（CVD）是全球范围内主要的死亡原因，与情感障碍高度并存。正念冥想可以改善CVD患者的健康状况。平静是最受欢迎的智能手机冥想应用程序，但尚未探索CVD患者中的使用模式。

方法

我们对N = 1512患有CVD的安静订户进行了一项横断面调查研究的二次分析，以探讨用户特征，使用方式和健康状况的变化，并比较有或没有共同焦虑或抑郁的人的结果。

结果

用户主要是白人（83％），女性（74％），并且有较高的收入（45％与> /年$ 100,000）。大多数（67％）至少每周使用5次Calm，然后开始使用Calm来帮助睡眠（69％）和压力（67％）。与仅使用CVD相比，有更多焦虑或沮丧的用户开始使用Calm来缓解压力（71％对64％）和焦虑或沮丧（77％对37％），并且使用包含声音和身体运动的组件的频率更高（所有p均<0.05）。大多数参与者报告了睡眠，压力以及身心健康的变化（60％至79％），尽管这种变化在焦虑或抑郁者中更为普遍（p＜0.001）。更加频繁地使用镇静剂会带来更大的健康变化（p＜0.05）。

结论

患有CVD的平静用户会定期使用该应用程序来促进健康，尤其是那些焦虑或抑郁的人，会从他们的平静使用中感知健康变化。需要随机对照试验来确定CVD患者使用Calm的功效和最佳剂量。