Tailored digital training improved emotion regulation in adults with congenital heart disease
The tailored program outperformed usual care, but direct comparison did not establish better emotion regulation than the general program.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Adults offered the tailored digital program had fewer emotion regulation difficulties after treatment than those receiving usual care. The general program showed later improvements but no statistically detected reduction immediately after treatment. Direct comparison did not detect a difference between the programs on the primary outcome, so their different results against usual care do not establish that tailoring was superior.
This abstract-based summary concerns emotional and psychosocial outcomes and cannot establish improved heart health. The abstract does not specify follow-up timing.
What researchers found
Emotion regulation difficulties (Cohen's d)
Tailored program versus usual care after 4 weeks; 95% confidence interval −0.72 to −0.18. Cohen's d expresses the difference in standard deviations, a measure of score variability; negative values mean fewer difficulties with tailoring.
What the exercises targeted
Daily digital exercises aimed to help participants manage emotions more flexibly. The main outcome was difficulty regulating emotions; other outcomes included well-being, life satisfaction, anxiety, depression, stress, and illness identity.
Where tailoring differed
The tailored program's reported gains persisted at follow-up. Direct comparisons favored tailoring for the range of emotion regulation strategies, a secondary outcome, while the primary outcome showed no statistically detected difference.
The original publication
Digital Emotion Regulation Interventions for Patients With Congenital Heart Disease: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Pruessner L, Hartmann S, Ehmann AL et al.
JAMA Netw Open · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 41134574
- Record checked
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