{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "id": "protect-off-work-time-from-work-apps-boundary-2026",
  "canonical_url": "https://brali-lifeos.github.io/evidence/protect-off-work-time-from-work-apps-boundary-2026/",
  "json_url": "https://brali-lifeos.github.io/evidence/protect-off-work-time-from-work-apps-boundary-2026/index.json",
  "decision": "propose-protocol",
  "decision_label": "Protocol candidate",
  "reviewed_at": "2026-09-05",
  "reviewed_by": "Brali Evidence Reviewer",
  "source": {
    "title": "Reducing Work-Related Screen-Time in Healthcare Workers During Leisure Time (REDUCE SCREEN) – A Randomized Controlled Trial",
    "url": "https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10916-026-02338-9",
    "type": "primary-study",
    "doi": "10.1007/s10916-026-02338-9",
    "citation_text": "Bartels K, Shah K, Sanchez Rodriguez E, et al. Journal of Medical Systems. 2026;50:11.",
    "study_design": "Preregistered pragmatic parallel randomized controlled trial conducted from November 2021 to November 2023. Eight hundred fifteen healthcare workers were randomized 1:1 before a selected work-free weekend to usual behavior or a three-component educational intervention. The trial was registered before enrollment (NCT05106647). Analysts were masked to allocation until the primary analysis; participants could not be masked. Because 295 randomized participants did not provide post-weekend outcomes, the main analysis was a modified intention-to-treat analysis among 520 responders.",
    "population": "815 adult US healthcare workers who routinely used a smartphone and had a work email application installed. The post-weekend analysis included 520 respondents; the modal age group was 25-34 years, 57% were women, and participants included nurses, physicians, advanced practice providers, trainees and other healthcare professionals.",
    "intervention_or_exposure": "Before an off-work weekend, participants received education encouraging three strategies: activate an automatic reply to incoming work email, reduce leisure-time screen use, and uninstall work applications from personal devices. Participants could choose to implement all, some, or none of the components. Control participants received no intervention.",
    "outcomes": [
      "Perceived Stress Scale-10 after the weekend adjusted for baseline",
      "Change in self-reported device screen time based on operating-system screen-time summaries",
      "Exploratory associations between chosen components and stress"
    ]
  },
  "supported_claim": "In this healthcare-worker sample, assigning a practical package designed to reduce work-related smartphone intrusion during a genuinely off-duty weekend produced a modest additional reduction in perceived stress versus an untreated off weekend and reduced reported screen time. Brali can therefore test a bounded off-work digital-boundary protocol: when a period is truly off duty, make non-availability explicit, remove or disable the easiest work-app entry points that are not required, and restore them when the off-duty period ends.",
  "unsupported_or_overstated_claims": [
    "Uninstalling work applications by itself has been proven to reduce stress; component use was self-selected within the intervention group.",
    "Automatic out-of-office replies by themselves reduce stress.",
    "All screen time should be reduced during leisure, regardless of content or purpose.",
    "The intervention prevents burnout, depression, anxiety, medical errors, or workforce attrition.",
    "The effect generalizes unchanged to non-healthcare workers, shift workers, caregivers, or people who are on call.",
    "One weekend is an optimal dose or proves durable long-term benefit.",
    "People should disable channels needed for emergencies, on-call duties, authentication, safety, or required care responsibilities.",
    "A one-hour reduction in screen time is a universal target or causal threshold."
  ],
  "limitations": [
    "About 36% of randomized participants did not provide the post-weekend outcome, so attrition could bias the modified intention-to-treat result despite similar measured baseline characteristics among completers and non-completers.",
    "The randomized intervention was a three-component educational package, so the causal contribution of automatic replies, general screen reduction, or work-app removal cannot be isolated.",
    "Which components participants actually adopted was self-selected; the apparently larger stress reduction among those who removed work apps is exploratory and vulnerable to motivation and selection bias.",
    "The primary outcome was self-reported perceived stress measured over a short off-work weekend; burnout and long-term recovery were not established.",
    "Screen time came from participant-reported operating-system summaries and did not distinguish work-related from leisure-related use.",
    "The study was conducted in US healthcare workers, where work urgency and after-hours obligations may differ materially from other occupations.",
    "The protocol must not be applied to periods when the user is formally on call or must remain reachable for safety-critical responsibilities."
  ],
  "target_hack_ids": [
    "protect-off-work-time-from-work-apps"
  ],
  "target_protocol_ids": [
    "brali:protect-off-work-time-from-work-apps"
  ],
  "risk_flags": [
    "mental-health"
  ],
  "notes": "Protocol-design direction: for a user-chosen period that is genuinely off duty, first communicate the boundary (for example, an approved away status or handoff), then disable/remove optional work-app access from the personal device or sign out of it, while preserving any explicitly required emergency/on-call channel. Restore access after the protected period. Measure whether work checking actually falls and whether subjective recovery/stress improves. Treat this as a boundary experiment, not a treatment for burnout or a blanket anti-screen rule."
}