NCT05622604

The Effect of Religious Practices on Mental and Spiritual Health

Completed NA Results posted Last updated 10 October 2025

What this trial tests

NA trial testing pray.com app (autonomous use) in Stress in 312 participants. Completed in 10 March 2023.

Timeline

30 November 2022

Primary endpoint
10 March 2023

10 March 2023

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Biola University
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	none
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	312
Start date	30 November 2022
Primary completion	10 March 2023
Estimated completion	10 March 2023
Sites	1 location across United States

Drugs / interventions tested

• pray.com app (autonomous use)
• pray.com app (meditative prayer condition)

Conditions studied

• Stress — all drugs for Stress →

Sponsor

Biola University

Who can join

18 and older, any sex, with Stress. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Results — posted to ClinicalTrials.gov

Per-arm endpoint measurements with 95% confidence intervals where reported. Source: trial results section.

Perceived Stress Scale Primary · 2 months

minimum value: 0, maximum value: 4, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of stress (i.e., worse outcome)

Group	Value	95% CI
no Intervention Condition	2.79	± .65
Autonomous Use Condition	2.71	± .57
Meditative Prayer Condition	2.65	± .65

Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Secondary · 2 months

minimum value: 0, maximum value: 3, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of anxiety/depression (i.e., worse outcome)

Anxiety

Group	Value	95% CI
no Intervention Condition	1.17	± .49
Autonomous Use Condition	1.00	± .46
Meditative Prayer Condition	.95	± .46

Depression

Group	Value	95% CI
no Intervention Condition	.66	± .50
Autonomous Use Condition	.63	± .56
Meditative Prayer Condition	.59	± .46

Mindful Attention Awareness Scale Secondary · 2 months

minimum value: 1, maximum value: 6, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of mindfulness (i.e., better outcome)

Group	Value	95% CI
no Intervention Condition	3.14	± .96
Autonomous Use Condition	2.87	± .75
Meditative Prayer Condition	2.89	± .96

Copenhagen Burnout Inventory--personal Subscale Secondary · 2 months

minimum value: 0, maximum value: 4, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of burnout (i.e., worse outcome)

Group	Value	95% CI
no Intervention Condition	2.93	± .91
Autonomous Use Condition	2.80	± .72
Meditative Prayer Condition	2.76	± .79

Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory Secondary · 2 months

Each component score of the scale ranges from 0 to 3, with 3 indicating the greatest dysfunction or disturbance. The seven component scores are then summed to obtain a total score, which ranges from 0 to 21. Higher scores indicate poorer sleep quality, with a score greater than 5 suggesting significant sleep difficulties

Group	Value	95% CI
no Intervention Condition	13.43	± 3.13
Autonomous Use Condition	13.21	± 2.88
Meditative Prayer Condition	13.55	± 2.91

Religious Commitment Inventory Secondary · 2 months

minimum value: 1, maximum value: 5, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of religious commitment (i.e., better outcome)

Group	Value	95% CI
no Intervention Condition	4.06	± .74
Autonomous Use Condition	3.85	± .93
Meditative Prayer Condition	4.07	± .76

Spiritual Well-Being Scale Secondary · 2 months

minimum value: 1, maximum value: 6, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of spiritual well-being (i.e., better outcome)

Group	Value	95% CI
no Intervention Condition	4.89	± .79
Autonomous Use Condition	4.79	± 1.02
Meditative Prayer Condition	4.85	± .77

Satisfaction With Life Scale Secondary · 2 months

minimum value: 1, maximum value: 7, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of satisfaction with life (i.e., better outcome)

Group	Value	95% CI
no Intervention Condition	4.92	± 1.35
Autonomous Use Condition	4.86	± 1.32
Meditative Prayer Condition	4.91	± 1.31

Productivity Secondary · 2 months

Participants' level of productivity was measured by three items (Vogel et al., 2022): Participants were asked to rate their responses on a scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Participants' mean responses were calculated, with higher scores indicating higher perceived efficiency and productivity

Group	Value	95% CI
no Intervention Condition	3.86	± .82
Autonomous Use Condition	3.86	± .89
Meditative Prayer Condition	4.00	± .86

Sponsor's own description

The goal of this clinical trial is to test the effects of using a religious mobile app (i.e., Pray.com) in participants who have high levels of stress. The main question it aims to answer is:

•What are the effects of using Pray.com on stress in individuals who report high levels of stress?

Participants will complete measures at baseline (i.e., Time 1), four-weeks (i.e., Time 2), and eight weeks (i.e., Time 3). Participants will be randomly assigned one of three conditions: (1) autonomous use (directed to use the app daily), (2) meditative prayer condition (directed to use this feature of the app daily), or (3) wait-list control condition.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial. Completed trials usually publish results within 12-18 months.