ArticleBMC public health2020
Efficacy of a smartphone-based intervention - "Holidaily" - promoting recovery behaviour in workers after a vacation: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.
Article in BMC public health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mental Health Apps Implemented in the Workplace: Scoping Review of Trends and Gaps in Evaluation Research.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Article
- Workaholism, heart anxiety, and their effects on work-focused well-being and turnover intentions.Journal of health psychology · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of the mobile application Holidaily in reducing work-related rumination when returning to work after vacation: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
- "Post-lockdown Depression": Adaptation Difficulties, Depressive Symptoms, and the Role of Positive Solitude When Returning to Routine After the Lifting of Nation-Wide COVID-19 Social Restrictions.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- The feasibility of using Apple's ResearchKit for recruitment and data collection: Considerations for mental health research.Frontiers in digital health · 2022Article
- Review of the Internal Structure, Psychometric Properties, and Measurement Invariance of the Work-Related Rumination Scale - Spanish Version.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWhile work-related rumination increases the risk of acute stressors developing into chronic load reactions and adverse health, mental detachment has been suggested as a way to interrupt this chain. Despite the importance of mentally detaching from work during leisure time, workers seem to struggle to disengage and, instead, experience the constant mental representation of work-related stressors, regardless of their absence. Those who struggle with work-related rumination could benefit from an easy-access intervention that fosters mental detachment by promoting recreational activities. Especially during vacations, workers appear to naturally engage in sufficient recovery activities; however, this beneficial behaviour is not sustained. The smartphone app-based intervention "Holidaily" promotes recovery behaviour and, thus, mental detachment from work with the intension of extending the beneficial effects of workers' vacations into their daily working life.
methodsThis randomised-controlled trial (RCT) evaluates the efficacy of "Holidaily". The Holidaily app is a German stand-alone program for mobile devices with either Android/iOS operating systems. The sample includes workers, who are awaiting to go on vacation and are randomly assigned to either the intervention (IG) or a waitlist-control group (CG). The IG receives two weeks pre-vacation access to Holidaily, while the CG receives access two weeks post-vacation. On a daily basis participants in the IG are provided with three options promoting recreational activities and beneficial recovery experiences. Online questionnaires are distributed to all participants at several timepoints. The primary outcome measure assesses participants' work-related rumination (Irritation Scale). A significant difference two weeks post-vacation is expected, favouring the IG. Secondary outcomes include symptoms of depression, insomnia severity, emotional exhaustion, thinking about work, recovery experiences, vacation specifics, work and personal characteristics. To help explain the intervention's effect, explorative analyses will investigate the mediation properties of the frequency of engaging in recreational activities and the moderation properties of Holidaily users' experiences. DISCUSSION: If successful, workers will maintain their recovery behaviour beyond their vacation into daily working life. Findings could, therefore, provide evidence for low-intensity interventions that could be very valuable from a public-health perspective. App-based interventions have greater reach; hence, more workers might access preventative tools to protect themselves from developing adverse health effects linked to work-related rumination. Further studies will still be needed to investigate whether the vacation phenomenon of "lots of fun quickly gone" can be defied and long-term benefits attained.
trial registrationGerman Clinical Trials Registration DRKS00013650 . Registered retrospectively 15.01.2018.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.