Attrition Rates in Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Chronic Pain
The Clinical Journal of Pain July 1, 2026 Michael Yufeng Wang, M Prabhavi N Perera, Paul B. Fitzgerald et al.
A meta-analysis of 44 studies found that mindfulness-based interventions for chronic pain have a pooled attrition rate of 30.1%, with substantial variation across programs. Attrition was higher when programs required more sessions for completion (49.7% for >6 sessions vs. 18.0% for 3–4 sessions), when delivered online (51.0%) versus in person (25.6%), and in individual versus group formats. The authors suggest that program structure should be optimized to improve retention.