Trait mindfulness and health behaviours: a meta-analysis. 2020

Margarita Sala, and Catherine Rochefort, and P Priscilla Lui, and Austin S Baldwin
Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA.

Mindfulness is defined as bringing one's attention to present-moment experience with acceptance, and is associated with engagement in various health behaviours. To synthesise and evaluate this literature, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analytic review and examined (a) the associations between trait mindfulness and health behaviours and (b) the extent to which these associations were moderated by study and individual differences. A total of 125 independent samples were included (N = 31,697, median male percentage = 38.8%, median age = 28.3). A multilevel random-effects model was used to estimate summary study-level effect sizes, and multilevel mixed-effects models were used to examine moderator effects. Mindfulness had a positive and small association with aggregated health behaviours (r = .08). Mindfulness was positively associated with physical activity, healthy eating, and sleep (rs = .08-.14), and negatively associated with alcohol use (r = -.06). Effects were larger for health promoting behaviours, the acting with awareness facet of mindfulness, and samples involving psychiatric patients. Although findings indicate that individual differences in trait mindfulness do not reliably translate into a pattern of healthful behaviours in general, trait mindfulness shows a stronger associations with health behaviours under certain conditions.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D010551 Personality Behavior-response patterns that characterize the individual. Personalities
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D001294 Attitude to Health Public attitudes toward health, disease, and the medical care system. Health Attitude,Attitude, Health,Attitudes, Health,Health Attitudes,Health, Attitude to
D015438 Health Behavior Combination of HEALTH KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES, PRACTICE which underlie actions taken by individuals regarding their health. Health-Related Behavior,Behavior, Health,Behavior, Health-Related,Behaviors, Health,Behaviors, Health-Related,Health Behaviors,Health Related Behavior,Health-Related Behaviors
D033182 Intention What a person has in mind to do or bring about. Intentions
D064866 Mindfulness A psychological state of awareness, the practices that promote this awareness, a mode of processing information and a character trait. As a therapy mindfulness is defined as a moment-to-moment awareness of one's experience without judgment and as a state and not a trait.

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