Health: Regular meditation can increase wellbeing in older people

Washington DC: An 18-month meditation programme can increase the well-being of older persons, according to a new randomised controlled trial led by an international team co-directed by UCL.

While the meditation training did not confer significant benefits on two commonly used measures of psychological wellbeing and quality of life, the researchers say their findings may reveal limitations in existing methods of tracking wellbeing.

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The study is the longest randomised meditation training trial conducted to date, and explored the impact of an 18-month meditation programme on the psychological wellbeing of more than 130 healthy French-speaking people aged 65 to 84. 

The team found that meditation training significantly impacted a global score that measures the wellbeing dimensions of awareness, connection, and insight.

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The programme did not benefit everyone equally, as participants who reported lower levels of psychological wellbeing at the start of the trial showed greater improvements compared to those who already had higher levels of wellbeing.

Senior author Dr Antoine Lutz said: "By showing the potential of meditation programmes, our findings pave the way for more targeted and effective programmes that can help older adults flourish, as we seek to go beyond simply preventing disease or ill-health, and instead take a holistic approach to helping people across the full spectrum of human wellbeing." (with ANI inputs)

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