The Influence Of Remote Mindfulness On Pain And Hip-related Quality Of Life Following Hip Arthroscopy

Although hip arthroscopy is a common procedure that can delay the need for hip arthroplasty, outcomes may be negatively impacted by psychological comorbidities. Remotely delivered mindfulness can improve mental health symptoms, but has not been evaluated as a post-operative intervention after hip arthroscopy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of a remote mindfulness program on patient-reported outcomes following hip arthroscopy.Fifty-five hip arthroscopy patients age 18-50 years were randomly assigned to post-operative standard of care (CON) or standard of care plus a smartphone-based 8-week mindfulness training (MF). One week before surgery and at 3, 6 and 12 months afterward, participants completed the International Hip Outcome Tool-12 (iHOT). The interaction term between group and time from linear mixed effects models was used to compare the relative change from baseline to follow-up timepoints between groups. This represents a preliminary analysis of an intended 100 total participants.The MF group (N = 22) were 59.1% female with a mean (SD) age of 31.2 (4.0) years and the CON group (N = 33) were 63.6% femalewith a meanage of 30.4 (2.8) years. Of these, 10 MF and 16 CON had available data at 12 months after surgery. The MF group demonstrated a greater improvement in iHOT total score from baseline to 12-months post-surgery than CON, although this did not reach statistical significance [β = 14.50 ± 8.87, p = 0.11]. MF had a greater improvement in hip pain from baseline to 12-months post-surgery than CON [β 20.30 ± 10.40, p = 0.055]. While results are likely limited by the small sample size available for analysis, these preliminary findings suggest that remotely delivered mindfulness may improve pain and hip-related quality of life after hip arthroscopy. While further research is needed, remote mindfulness may be an affordable, accessible and safe complement to post-operative care following hip arthroscopy.