Emotional benefits of mindfulness-based stress reduction in older adults: the moderating roles of age and depressive symptom severity

Abstract

Objectives: To examine the effects of age and depressive symptom severity on changes in positive affect among older adults randomly assigned to a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program or a Waitlist Control group. Drawing from the Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development, we hypothesized that lower levels of depressive symptom severity and older age would be associated with greater positive affect in response to the MBSR intervention.

Methods: Data were collected from a sample of community-dwelling English-speaking adults (n = 200) aged ≥ 65, randomly assigned to an eight-week MBSR program or a Waitlist Control group. Our main outcome variable was a five-item measure of positive affect, which was measured at study entry as well as eight weeks and six months later.

Results: At the six-month follow-up, we observed group by baseline depressive symptom severity (β = -.17, p = .02) and group by baseline depressive symptom severity by age (β = -.14, p = .05) interactions. Among MBSR participants, greater baseline depressive symptom severity was also associated with less improvement in positive affect at the six-month follow-up (β = -.30, p = .003). Findings were qualified by a significant depressive symptom severity by age interaction (β = -.25, p = .01), such that MBSR participants who were 70 and over with lower baseline depressive symptom severity having the greatest improvement in positive affect at the six-month follow-up.

Conclusion: MBSR improves positive affect for older adults with lower depressive symptom severity, perhaps because it capitalizes on naturalistic changes in control strategies.

Figures

Figure 1

MBSR-related improvement in positive affect at the 6-month follow-up was greatest for participants 70 years and older with lower baseline depressive symptom severity. Depression severity is based on a composite score of the CESD-R* and HAM-D.** The composite score was divided into thirds to demonstrate lower, middle, and upper ranges of depression severity in this sample. Multivariate analyses yielded a significant main effect of baseline depression severity and a significant depression by age interaction. n = 100. * CESD-R scores for the MBSR group: lower (n = 32, M = 1.00, SD = 1.57), middle (n = 34, M = 4.41, SD = 3.29), and upper (n = 34, M = 12.26, SD = 7.67). ** HAM-D scores for the MBSR group: lower (n = 32, M = 2.66, SD = 1.68), middle (n = 34, M = 7.53, SD = 2.45), and upper (n = 34, M = 12.88, SD = 4.13). Emotional Benefits of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Older Adults: The Moderating Roles of Age and Depressive Symptom Severity