Effects of mindfulness meditation on anxiety, depression, stress, and mindfulness in nursing students: a meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis of randomized controlled trials

Abstract

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation (MM) on anxiety, depression, stress and mindfulness in nursing students.MethodsA comprehensive search and screening procedures were conducted to locate all MM interventions implemented with nursing students. For randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in accordance with the inclusion criteria, a search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Medline, PsycINFO, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), China Biology Medicine (CBM), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang. Databases were retrieved from inception through August 2018. Additional studies were identified through hand searches and Internet searches. Two reviewers collected relevant data of eligible articles according to the data extraction tables. Based on Cochrane Handbook, critical appraisal of the methodological quality was assessed by two other reviewers. An Excel form was used to extract main characteristics of included RCTs. Meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis (TSA) were carried out using software RevMan 5.3 and TSA 0.9.ResultsFive RCTs with 257 nursing students were included. Only two studies were assessed as high quality and three studies were evaluated as moderate quality. Meta-analysis showed that, comparing with the control group, MM could significantly improve anxiety (SMD = −0.45, 95% CI −0.73 to −0.17, P = 0.001) and stress (SMD = −0.69, 95% CI −0.97 to −0.40, P < 0.001). TSA results confirmed that the outcome of the merger is credible. It could also significantly improve depression level of nursing students after 8 weeks intervention duration (SMD = −0.70, 95% CI −1.14 to −0.26, P = 0.002). However, there was no beneficial effect on depression level of nursing students with 1 week intervention duration (SMD = 0.09, 95% CI −0.42 to 0.59, P = 0.74) and its effects on mindfulness level of nursing students also did not show statistical significance (SMD = 0.37, 95% CI −0.04 to 0.77, P = 0.07). No definitive conclusions were drawn from the TSA.ConclusionsThe results of this meta-analysis indicated that MM could effectively reduce the level of anxiety and stress of nursing students. TSA confirmed that the results of meta-analysis are credible. For depression, it could also significantly improve depression of nursing students with 8 weeks intervention, but there was no significant effect on nursing students with 1 week intervention duration. There was also no beneficial effect on mindfulness level of nursing students. However, TSA indicated that the accumulated evidence is still inconclusive. We suggest that more well-designed clinical trials with large sample and higher quality would be required in future to draw a definitive conclusion.

Latent profile analysis of COVID-19 fear, depression, anxiety, stress, mindfulness, and resilience

“…Based on the results of the current study, it is recommended clinicians continue using resilience resources in their work with university students. Other researchers found mindfulness effective on reducing levels of stress, anxiety, and depression (Khoury et al, 2015 ; Li et al, 2020 ). Based on the findings of this study, clinicians may also want to include teaching mindfulness and utilization of mindfulness related practices when working with university students coping with COVID-19 fear, depression, anxiety, and stress as well to enhance students well-being.…”

“…Similarly, mindfulness should be taken into consideration for decreasing negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic. As literature reviews have suggested, mindfulness practices are effective on coping with stress, anxiety, and depression; therefore, individuals may practice mindfulness to cope with presenting negative symptoms during the global COVID-19 pandemic (Behan, 2020 ; Khoury et al, 2015 ; Li et al, 2020 ). With support for this idea, Behan ( 2020 ) reviewed the benefits of meditation and mindfulness practices, and recommended utilizing such tools to help enhance coping skills of individuals in this difficult time.…”

Effectiveness of Meditation in Relieving Anxiety among General Nursing and Midwifery Students

“…It was also observed that meditation was an effective intervention for nursing students to decrease their stress and anxiety and could be used to manage stress in student nurses [12,13] .…”

IS MINDFULNESS-BASED STRESS REDUCTION EFFECTIVE IN REDUCING STRESS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND INCREASING LEVEL OF SATISFACTION AMONG HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS? A META-ANALYSIS OF RCTs

“…Outcomes from a meta-analysis may include a more precise estimate of the outcomes, than any individual study contributing to the pooled analysis. The examination of variability or heterogeneity in study results is also a critical outcome [6,9]. The benefits of meta-analysis include a consolidated and quantitative review of a large, and often complex, sometimes apparently conflicting, body of literature.…”

“…In the recent decades many researches proposed MBSR as a potential tool helping practitioners of becoming less vulnerable to stressors, Burnout as well as improving resilience and self-compassionate [4][5][6][7]. However, recent studies show inconclusive results about this association meta-analysis based on RCTs n this era [7,8,9], furthermore most of the trials done on the non-clinical setting ,yet only limited research done on clinical population [8,9]. Therefore, to help to ensure health care providers and patient safety, we used the data published RCTs in the last 10 years to carry out a meta-analysis with the main aim to Evaluate the effectiveness of Mindfulness -Based stress reduction intervention in promoting health care professional's mental health and wellbeing in terms of stress reduction, Burnout and level of satisfaction.…”