Just-in-time adaptive interventions for dealing with (work) stress

A just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI) “is an intervention design aiming to provide the right type/amount of support, at the right time, by adapting to an individual's changing internal and contextual state” (Nahum-Shani et al., 2018, p. 1). In other words, the goal of JITAI is to address the changing needs of individuals for support. JITAIs are increasingly used to promote health behavior change (Carpenter et al., 2020; Nahum-Shani et al., 2018).
We developed a JITAI-prototype aimed at supporting health care professionals in managing their daily work stress. This prototype operates in a smartphone application (How-Am-I-app). At the end of each working day, the app prompts the user to fill in a short questionnaire on stress, workload, and context-related factors. Immediately after this assessment, the developed algorithm results in personalized feedback and provides the user with suitable tips on dealing with work stress.
The prototype has not been tested in practice yet. However, the prototype is based on another JITAI smartphone application that has shown promising results, the so-called Stress Autism Mate (SAM). SAM was developed to support persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in managing their daily stress levels. SAM provides users with direct feedback on their stress levels, personal tips to reduce their stress, and insight in their individual stress patterns by providing statistics.
In the presentation we will illustrate the potential of the JITAI-prototype by showing results of SAM. Also, we will reflect on lessons learned and future challenges for other JITAIs aimed at reducing (work) stress.