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.

Keywords:

• mindfulness-based stress reduction
• age
• depressive symptom severity
• positive affect

Acknowledgements

Dr. Gallegos was supported by the Program of Research and Innovation in Disparities Education (PRIDE), MHREG for Research in Ethnically Diverse Communities R25MH074898 (Duberstein, PI). Dr. Hoerger was supported by T32MH018911. Study funding came from R01AG025474 (Moynihan, PI) and R24AG031089 (Moynihan, PI).

Notes

Note. N = 200. Depressive Symptom Severity Composite = the standardized summated composite of the CESD-R and HAM-D; PANAS = Positive and Negative Affect Schedule.

Note. Baseline depression symptom severity was measures as the standardized summated composite of scores on the CESD-R and the HAM‑D. Positive Affect was measured using the PANAS. Correlation values control for gender, education level, and number of health conditions. * p < .05 ** p < .01.