{"doi":"10.47988/janany.70558153.4.1","title":"A Quasi-Experimental Study Exploring Anxiety and Meditation in Healthcare Workers Receiving the COVID-19 Vaccine","abstract":"Background: Healthcare workers standing at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic faced many concurrent sources of anxiety including critically ill patients, nosocomial transmission, and physical exhaustion due to staffing shortages. Our multidisciplinary team recognized the urgent need to assess and support our healthcare providers during COVID-19 vaccine administration in hospital employees. Objectives: The purpose of the quasi-experimental study was to pilot a 5-minute guided breath and body meditation designed and recorded by a Meditation Mind-Body Therapist of the researchers’ Integrative Medicine Department. The primary research aim of the study was to describe the prevalence of anxiety among healthcare employees during COVID-19 vaccination. The secondary aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of the mind-body meditation for anxiety in reducing reported levels of anxiety. Method: A 2 arm, quasi-experimental design was utilized to assign participants to a 5-minute meditation (intervention) during the post-vaccination waiting period at a hospital-run vaccination clinic. Pre-vaccination, baseline anxiety within the last 2 weeks was measured with the General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and current state anxiety with the Visual Analogue Scale-Anxiety (VAS-A). Post-vaccination, anxiety was reassessed using the VAS-A. REDCap was utilized to electronically deliver all study elements on the patient’s personal smartphone, including data entry and meditation administration. Results: 461 patients enrolled in the study. Pre-vaccination GAD-7 results revealed 17.4% of participants reported moderate-severe baseline anxiety. The meditation intervention had a statistically significant (p < .001) reduction in anxiety (VAS-A) scores from pre- to post-vaccination compared to controls. The mean change in VAS-A scores was -9.5 (95% CI -11.9, -7.1) within the intervention group and -2.6 (95% CI -5.7, 0.5) within the control group. Discussion: The use of a brief meditation during the COVID-19 vaccine post-vaccination waiting period decreased anxiety in healthcare workers. The simplicity, scalability, and minimal budget requirements make this non-pharmacological intervention useful in addressing anxiety during vaccination.","journal":"Journal of the American Nurses Association - New York","year":2024,"id":508674,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9606,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1064829,"name":"Amy Caramore","orcid":"0000-0002-1838-8432","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":316495,"name":"Raymond E. Baser","orcid":"0000-0002-1644-4090","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":791725,"name":"Jennifer R. Majumdar","orcid":"0000-0002-1834-7331","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1314629,"name":"Margaret Barton-Burke","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":798225,"name":"Kristen L. Fessele","orcid":"0000-0003-2336-6841","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":617918,"name":"Justin O’Leary","orcid":"0000-0002-7538-8455","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:11:11.495781Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}