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Effectiveness of Mindfulness on Decreasing Stress in Health Professional Students: A Systematic Review

Akhmad Yanuar Fahmi, Meidiana Dwidiyanti, Diyan Yuli Wijayanti

Holistic Nursing and Health Science July 10, 2018 DOI: 10.14710/hnhs.1.1.2018.1-11 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Systematic review Peer reviewed
Population Health professional students
Interventions yoga therapy meditation therapy
Duration 3-6 weeks
Topics Meditation
Citations 5
Key findings The review reports that mindfulness interventions, particularly MBSR practiced through 5-35 minute meditation sessions over 3-6 weeks, decreased stress in health professional students, with a reported very significant p-value. The authors conclude that MBSR mindfulness can reduce stress and recommend further research in other student populations.

Abstract

Background: Stress in health professional students is increasing every year. Therefore it is necessary to implement stress management for the students. Mindfulness is an alternative which can be used to deal with stress.

Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review is to describe the effectiveness of mindfulness on decreasing stress in health professional students.

Methods: This systematic review was conducted by searching relevant articles published in online databases EBSCO, Science Direct, PubMed, and Google. The search was restricted to the full-text articles published in 2010-2017 and employed the RCTs and non-RCTs research designs with a mindfulness intervention.Results: Of the ten articles reviewed, it was found that mindfulness could decrease stress in professional health students with a very significant p-value. The types of mindfulness administered to the health professional students included yoga therapy, MBSR therapy, and meditation therapy. In average, MBSR therapy is used for health professional students. This intervention is practiced through meditation which lasts for 5-35 minutes for 3-6 weeks.

Conclusion: The study reported that, in average, the intervention to decrease stress in health professional students is performed by using MBSR with a meditation of 5-35 minutes. The intervention is done for 3-6 weeks. Results found that MBSR mindfulness could decrease stress. Further research is needed to explore the effectiveness of mindfulness on other subjects such as students who get scholarships.

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

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