Mental and Physical Health Impacts of Mindfulness Training for College Undergraduates: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Background Universities increasingly offer mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) to improve student health and reduce their impact on overburdened psychological services. It is critical for evidence-based policy to determine for what health outcomes mindfulness programs are effective and under what conditions. Objectives were to (a) perform a comprehensive analysis of the effects of mindfulness interventions on physical, mental, and behavioral health outcomes in college undergraduate students, and (b) examine moderators of intervention effects to identify factors that may help improve existing university mindfulness programs and guide the design of new programs. Method Systematic searches of five databases identified MBP randomized controlled trials for undergraduate students, measuring any health outcome. Analyses using robust variance estimation focused on standardized mean differences for outcomes between groups and modeled through coded study features. Results The 58 studies in the review primarily focused on mental health with fewer assessments of physical health or health behaviors. Overall, mindfulness interventions significantly outperformed both active and inactive controls ( p -values<.05), with the most marked effects on anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and mindfulness; greater success appeared for clinical populations. Online programs performed equivalent to in-person, and non-MBPs were equivalent to MBPs after controlling for other factors. Publication bias and other quality issues also emerged. Conclusions Mindfulness programs improve well-being in college students, with the strongest evidence for reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms. More studies utilizing stronger methods are needed to evaluate mindfulness programs’ effects on additional health outcomes and online interventions in clinical populations. Preregistration The study protocol was preregistered (PROSPERO CRD42017052459).