Mindfulness as a tool for reducing stress in healthcare professionals: An umbrella review.
Giuseppe La Torre, Pasquale Fabio Leggieri, Rosario Andrea Cocchiara, Barbara Dorelli, Alice Mannocci, Sabina Sernia, Fabrizio Guerra
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Umbrella review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Health care providers and health care students |
| Interventions | Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) mindfulness-based interventions |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Healthcare professionals Stress reduction Umbrella review |
| Key findings | The authors report that mindfulness-based interventions, especially MBSR courses, showed positive results for reducing stress in health care providers and students, but they caution that study quality ranged from critically low to high and that several limitations affect the validity of the evidence, so more research is needed for reliable conclusions. |
Abstract
Health care providers (HCPs) and health care students experience a huge amount of stress due to high workloads and pressure to perform and are likely to develop anxiety, depression and burnout. The objective was to carry out an umbrella review of systematic and narrative reviews on the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions in reducing stress and improving well-being in HCPs and health care students. Systematic and narrative reviews that examined the impact of mindfulness-based interventions on HCPs and healthcare students' perceived stress were identified through a systematic search of three electronic databases: PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science. Fifteen articles were included in the analysis: eleven systematic and four narrative reviews. Studies' quality varied from critically low to high. The different interventions showed positive results in reducing stress in both HCPs and students, with mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) course having the major impact. MBSR techniques and other mindfulness based interventions resulted to be potentially effective in reducing stress. However, despite the vast amount of data collected by the studies and the promising results, several limitations affected the validity of the studies. Therefore, more research that considers the critical aspects of this field is required, in order to provide more reliable results.
Comparable studies
Other systematic reviews and meta-analyses on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being Diverse adult clinical populations | 2014 | Meta-analysis | n = 3,515 |
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Stress Management in Healthy People: A Review and Meta-Analysis Healthy subjects | 2009 | Systematic review and meta-analysis | |
| The psychological effects of meditation: A meta-analysis. Nonclinical groups of adult meditators | 2012 | Meta-analysis | n = 163 |
| Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Prevention of Depressive Relapse Adults with recurrent depression in full or partial remission | 2016 | Meta-analysis of individual patient data from randomized controlled trials | n = 1,258 |
| Mindfulness‐Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness‐Based Cognitive Therapy – a systematic review of randomized controlled trials | 2011 | Systematic review |
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- Online and In-Person Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Improves Stress Resilience in Nursing Education. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing June 1, 2025
- Uncovering a stability signature of brain dynamics associated with meditation experience using massive time-series feature extraction. Neural Networks March 1, 2024
- Mindfulness, mental health, and motives for eating tasty foods when not in metabolic need. Frontiers in Psychology 2023
Cites 11
- Mindfulness‐based stress reduction: A literature review and clinician’s guide Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners April 1, 2008
- Teaching mindfulness in medical school: where are we now and where are we going? Medical Education July 10, 2013
- Mindfulness‐based stress reduction for psychological distress among nurses: A systematic review Journal of Clinical Nursing July 3, 2019
- Mindfulness meditation for workplace wellness: An evidence map Work May 28, 2019
- The effectiveness of mindfulness meditation for nurses and nursing students: An integrated literature review. Nurse Education Today June 1, 2018
and 6 more in the library