Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Change in Health-Related Behaviors
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive and Behavioral MedicineDepartment of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
Document Type
PreprintPublication Date
2013-01-01Keywords
Health BehaviorStress, Psychological
Mind-Body Therapies
Meditation
Relaxation Therapy
mindfulness
mindfulness-based stress reduction
health behaviors
Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms
Community Health and Preventive MedicineMovement and Mind-Body TherapiesPreventive Medicine
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
How best to support change in health-related behaviors is an important public health challenge. The role of mindfulness training in this process has received limited attention. We sought to explore whether mindfulness training is associated with changes in health-related behaviors. The Health Behaviors Questionnaire was used to obtain self-reported dietary behaviors, drinking, smoking, physical activity and sleep quality before and after attendance at an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program. T-test for paired data and chi-square were used to compare pre-post intervention means and proportions of relevant variables with p = .05 as level of significance. Participants (n = 174; mean age 47 years, range: 19-68; 61 % female) reported significant improvements in dietary behaviors and sleep quality. Partial changes were seen in drinking and physical activity, and no change in smoking. In conclusion, mindfulness training promotes favorable changes in selected health-related behaviors deserving further study through randomized controlled trials.Source
Salmoirago-Blotcher E, Hunsinger M, Morgan L, Fischer D, Carmody J. Mindfulness-based stress reduction and change in health-related behaviors. Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2013 Oct;18(4):243-7. doi:10.1177/2156587213488600. Link to final published version of article on publisher's websiteDOI
10.1177/2156587213488600Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/26405Rights
Copyright The Author(s). This is the authors' initial version of the paper before peer review as submitted to: Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.Scopus Count
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