Tension Tamer: delivering meditation with objective heart rate acquisition for adherence monitoring using a smart phone platform.

OBJECTIVES This brief report demonstrates the proof of concept of the Tension Tamer (TT) smartphone application, which integrates photoplethysmograph capabilities with breathing awareness meditation (BAM), to reduce stress and measure heart rate and adherence. DESIGN Methods for objectively measuring heart rate and adherence to BAM were developed as part of a future randomized controlled trial. SETTING/LOCATION The study was conducted at Jerry Zucker Middle School of Science and the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston. SUBJECTS The subjects were three prehypertensive male teachers. INTERVENTION The method used was smartphone delivered BAM. OUTCOME MEASURES Objective measures included heart rate, adherence, and ambulatory blood pressure (BP). RESULTS Adherence data was successfully collected by the TT application. Increased adherence to TT coincided with increased improvements in ambulatory BP over a 3-month period. CONCLUSIONS TT shows promise as a simple inexpensive program for administering BAM and capturing adherence data in future clinical trials.