Nonrandomized Open Trial of a Mindfulness- and Compassion-Based Selective Preventive Mobile Health Intervention for Forcibly Displaced People

Objectives: This study tested the feasibility of Mindfulness-SOS for Refugees, a novel lay- and minimally guided mobile health mindfulness- and compassion-based intervention that is trauma-sensitive and socio-culturally adapted for diverse forcibly displaced people. Method: A pre-registered, nonrandomized, single-arm, open trial of Mindfulness-SOS as a selective preventive intervention was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic among 60 Eritrean asylum seekers living in an unstable urban post-displacement setting in the Middle East (Israel). Measures included digital usage metrics and self-report measures of stress- and trauma-related mental health and socio-contextual stressors. Results: Asylum seekers (n = 58) demonstrated high rates of adherence to the session modules and generally moderate rates of overall adherence. Elevated pre-intervention post-traumatic stress symptoms severity and post-migration living difficulties stressors prospectively predicted lower levels of engagement with meditation practice exercises. Finally, greater engagement with meditation practice exercises was associated with attenuated deterioration in depression and anxiety, but not with change in post-traumatic stress symptoms, from pre- to post-intervention. Conclusions: Mindfulness-SOS may be a feasible selective preventive intervention approach among asylum seekers in stressful post-displacement settings. Preregistration: The study was preregistered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04761510; clinicaltrials.gov; 2021-02-17).