Longer-term meditation training improved some aspects of wellbeing in older adults

Research details

The study involved 137 healthy adults aged 65–84 who were followed through an 18-month programme.

Meditation improved a combined wellbeing measure covering awareness, connection, and insight, compared with English-language training.

Compared with no intervention, meditation also improved the combined wellbeing measure and awareness.

There was no statistically significant advantage on the broader Psychological Well-being Scale.

A quality-of-life advantage was not statistically significant after adjustment for multiple comparisons.

Teaser

An 18-month randomised study found clearer gains in certain wellbeing measures, while broader psychological wellbeing and adjusted quality-of-life results were less conclusive.

Source Title

An 18-month meditation training selectively improves psychological well-being in older adults: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial

Plain Summary

A peer-reviewed study examined whether 18 months of structured meditation training could improve wellbeing and quality of life in healthy older adults. The research included 137 people aged 65 to 84. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: an 18-month meditation programme, 18 months of English-language training, or no intervention. Random assignment helps researchers compare groups fairly, although it cannot remove every possible limitation.

The meditation programme was specific: it began with nine months of mindfulness training and continued with nine months focused on loving-kindness and compassion. The findings therefore apply most directly to this combined programme, rather than automatically to every kind of meditation.

Compared with the English-language training group, people in the meditation group showed greater improvement in a combined measure of wellbeing. This measure included awareness, connection, and insight. Compared with people who received no intervention, the meditation group also improved on this overall measure and on awareness.

The results were not positive across every outcome. The meditation group did not show a statistically significant advantage on the study’s broader Psychological Well-being Scale. In simple terms, the difference between groups on this wider measure was not strong enough for the researchers to treat it as a clear finding. There was also an apparent advantage in quality of life, but it was no longer statistically significant after the researchers adjusted for multiple comparisons. This kind of adjustment helps reduce the chance that an apparently positive result arose simply because many outcomes were tested.

Because this was a randomised controlled trial, the findings provide useful evidence that this particular, extended meditation programme may have contributed to improvements in some wellbeing-related measures. However, the study does not show that meditation improves every aspect of psychological wellbeing, and it does not establish that all meditation programmes would have the same effects. The participants were healthy older adults, so the results may not apply in the same way to younger people or those with health conditions.

Practical Takeaway

This study suggests that a particular 18-month meditation programme may support some parts of wellbeing in healthy older adults, especially measures involving awareness, connection, and insight. It does not show a clear improvement in every aspect of psychological wellbeing, and the quality-of-life finding became less certain after statistical adjustment. The results should therefore be viewed as encouraging but limited: they describe one structured programme, studied in one group of older adults, rather than proving that all meditation has the same effects.