A recent randomized controlled trial led by researchers from University College London (UCL) has found that participating in an 18-month meditation program can significantly improve the overall well-being of older adults. The findings, published in PLOS ONE, demonstrate that meditation can enhance individuals’ awareness, connection with others, and insight.
Although the meditation training did not result in significant benefits in two commonly used measures of psychological well-being and quality of life, the researchers suggest that this may highlight the limitations of current methods for assessing well-being.
Lead author Marco Schlosser, from UCL Psychiatry and the University of Geneva, remarked, “As the global population continues to age, it is becoming increasingly important to understand how we can support older adults in maintaining and enhancing their psychological well-being. In our study, we investigated whether long-term meditation training could improve important aspects of well-being. Our findings suggest that meditation holds promise as a non-pharmacological approach to promoting flourishing in later life.”
This trial is the longest randomized meditation training study conducted to date and examined the impact of an 18-month meditation program on the psychological well-being of over 130 healthy French-speaking individuals aged 65 to 84.
Led by Principal Investigator Professor Gaël Chételat, the study took place in Caen, France and involved the edit-Aging (Silver Santé Study) research group, which includes UCL, Inserm, University of Geneva, Université de Caen Normandy, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, University of Liège, Technische Universität Dresden, and Friedrich Schiller University Jena.
The researchers compared a meditation program, which consisted of a nine-month mindfulness module followed by a nine-month loving kindness and compassion module, delivered through weekly group sessions lasting two hours, daily home practice of at least 20 minutes, and one retreat day, with a group that underwent English language training as a comparison, as well as a no-intervention control group.
The team discovered that the meditation training had a significant impact on a global score measuring the dimensions of well-being, including awareness, connection, and insight. Awareness refers to a focused and intimate attentiveness to one’s thoughts, feelings, and surroundings, which can contribute to a sense of calm and deep satisfaction. Connection encompasses feelings such as respect, gratitude, and kinship, which can foster positive relationships with others. Insight involves self-knowledge and an understanding of how thoughts and feelings shape our perception, as well as how to transform unhelpful thinking patterns related to oneself and the world.
While the benefits of meditation training on a recognized measure of psychological quality of life were not superior to those of English language training, neither intervention significantly affected another widely used measure of psychological well-being. The researchers propose that this discrepancy may be because these established measures do not fully capture the qualities and depth of human flourishing that can potentially be cultivated through long-term meditation training, consequently missing the benefits to awareness, connection, and insight.
The study also revealed that the program did not benefit all participants equally, with those reporting lower levels of psychological well-being at the beginning of the trial experiencing greater improvements compared to those who already had higher levels of well-being.
Co-author Dr. Natalie Marchant from UCL Psychiatry commented, “We hope that further research will shed light on which individuals are most likely to benefit from meditation training, as it may have stronger effects on specific groups. With the evidence that meditation training can benefit older adults, we aspire to further refine these programs in collaboration with colleagues from other disciplines to make them even more advantageous.”
Senior author Dr. Antoine Lutz from the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center and Inserm in France added, “By demonstrating the potential of meditation programs, our findings open doors for more targeted and effective programs that can help older adults flourish. We aim to move beyond simply preventing diseases or ill-health and take a holistic approach to improving human well-being across the full spectrum.”
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1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
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