An 18-month meditation training selectively improves psychological well-being in older adults: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial.
<h4>Objectives</h4>As the world population is ageing, it is vital to understand how older adults can maintain and deepen their psychological well-being as they are confronted with the unique challenges of ageing in a complex world. Theoretical work has highlighted the promising role of i...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2023-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0294753&type=printable |
| _version_ | 1797392941098991616 |
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| author | Marco Schlosser Olga M Klimecki Fabienne Collette Julie Gonneaud Matthias Kliegel Natalie L Marchant Gaël Chételat Antoine Lutz Medit-Ageing Research Group |
| author_facet | Marco Schlosser Olga M Klimecki Fabienne Collette Julie Gonneaud Matthias Kliegel Natalie L Marchant Gaël Chételat Antoine Lutz Medit-Ageing Research Group |
| author_sort | Marco Schlosser |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <h4>Objectives</h4>As the world population is ageing, it is vital to understand how older adults can maintain and deepen their psychological well-being as they are confronted with the unique challenges of ageing in a complex world. Theoretical work has highlighted the promising role of intentional mental training such as meditation practice for enhancing human flourishing. However, meditation-based randomised controlled trials in older adults are lacking. We aimed to investigate the effects of meditation training on psychological well-being in older adults.<h4>Methods</h4>This study presents a secondary analysis of the Age-Well trial (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02977819), which randomised 137 healthy older adults (age range: 65 to 84 years) to an 18-month meditation training, an active comparator (English language training), or a passive control. Well-being was measured at baseline, mid-intervention, and 18-month post-randomisation using the Psychological Well-being Scale (PWBS), the World Health Organisation's Quality of Life (QoL) Assessment psychological subscale, and composite scores reflecting the meditation-based well-being dimensions of awareness, connection, insight, and a global score comprising the average of these meditation-based dimensions.<h4>Results</h4>The 18-month meditation training was superior to English training on changes in the global score (0.54 [95% CI: 0.26, 0.82], p = 0.0002) and the subscales of awareness, connection, insight, and superior to no-intervention only on changes in the global score (0.54 [95% CI: 0.26, 0.82], p = 0.0002) and awareness. Between-group differences in psychological QoL in favour of meditation did not remain significant after adjusting for multiple comparisons. There were no between-group differences in PWBS total score. Within the meditation group, psychological QoL, awareness, insight, and the global score increased significantly from baseline to 18-month post-randomisation.<h4>Conclusion</h4>The longest randomised meditation training conducted to date enhanced a global composite score reflecting the meditation-based well-being dimensions of awareness, connection, and insight in older adults. Future research is needed to delineate the cognitive, affective, and behavioural factors that predict responsiveness to meditation and thus help refine the development of tailored meditation training. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T23:55:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-92ed7ec68b1b4cc4b6b287d4abf19ad6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T23:55:56Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-92ed7ec68b1b4cc4b6b287d4abf19ad62023-12-13T05:32:07ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032023-01-011812e029475310.1371/journal.pone.0294753An 18-month meditation training selectively improves psychological well-being in older adults: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial.Marco SchlosserOlga M KlimeckiFabienne ColletteJulie GonneaudMatthias KliegelNatalie L MarchantGaël ChételatAntoine LutzMedit-Ageing Research Group<h4>Objectives</h4>As the world population is ageing, it is vital to understand how older adults can maintain and deepen their psychological well-being as they are confronted with the unique challenges of ageing in a complex world. Theoretical work has highlighted the promising role of intentional mental training such as meditation practice for enhancing human flourishing. However, meditation-based randomised controlled trials in older adults are lacking. We aimed to investigate the effects of meditation training on psychological well-being in older adults.<h4>Methods</h4>This study presents a secondary analysis of the Age-Well trial (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02977819), which randomised 137 healthy older adults (age range: 65 to 84 years) to an 18-month meditation training, an active comparator (English language training), or a passive control. Well-being was measured at baseline, mid-intervention, and 18-month post-randomisation using the Psychological Well-being Scale (PWBS), the World Health Organisation's Quality of Life (QoL) Assessment psychological subscale, and composite scores reflecting the meditation-based well-being dimensions of awareness, connection, insight, and a global score comprising the average of these meditation-based dimensions.<h4>Results</h4>The 18-month meditation training was superior to English training on changes in the global score (0.54 [95% CI: 0.26, 0.82], p = 0.0002) and the subscales of awareness, connection, insight, and superior to no-intervention only on changes in the global score (0.54 [95% CI: 0.26, 0.82], p = 0.0002) and awareness. Between-group differences in psychological QoL in favour of meditation did not remain significant after adjusting for multiple comparisons. There were no between-group differences in PWBS total score. Within the meditation group, psychological QoL, awareness, insight, and the global score increased significantly from baseline to 18-month post-randomisation.<h4>Conclusion</h4>The longest randomised meditation training conducted to date enhanced a global composite score reflecting the meditation-based well-being dimensions of awareness, connection, and insight in older adults. Future research is needed to delineate the cognitive, affective, and behavioural factors that predict responsiveness to meditation and thus help refine the development of tailored meditation training.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0294753&type=printable |
| spellingShingle | Marco Schlosser Olga M Klimecki Fabienne Collette Julie Gonneaud Matthias Kliegel Natalie L Marchant Gaël Chételat Antoine Lutz Medit-Ageing Research Group An 18-month meditation training selectively improves psychological well-being in older adults: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial. PLoS ONE |
| title | An 18-month meditation training selectively improves psychological well-being in older adults: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial. |
| title_full | An 18-month meditation training selectively improves psychological well-being in older adults: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial. |
| title_fullStr | An 18-month meditation training selectively improves psychological well-being in older adults: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial. |
| title_full_unstemmed | An 18-month meditation training selectively improves psychological well-being in older adults: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial. |
| title_short | An 18-month meditation training selectively improves psychological well-being in older adults: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial. |
| title_sort | 18 month meditation training selectively improves psychological well being in older adults a secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial |
| url | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0294753&type=printable |
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