Meditation training can support wellbeing in older adults

Following an 18-month meditation programme can improve the wellbeing of older adults, finds a new randomised controlled trial by an international team co-led by UCL. The findings, published in PLOS ONE , show that meditation can improve people's awareness, connection to others, and insight. 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. Lead author Marco Schlosser (UCL Psychiatry and University of Geneva) said: "As the global population ages, it is increasingly crucial to understand how we can support older adults in maintaining and deepening their psychological wellbeing. In our study, we tested whether long-term meditation training can enhance important dimensions of wellbeing. Our findings suggest that meditation is a promising non-pharmacological approach to support human flourishing in late life." 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 study, led by Principal Investigator Professor Gaël Chételat, took place in Caen, France.