Siri Frericks

Science Snack #4:

Meditation research: no longer a niche topic

More and more people are taking up meditation and mindfulness and experience the changes these practices can bring about in their daily lives. Some people still regard meditation and mindfulness as esoteric concepts. However, they have been explored by science for a long time. In the first half of this year, more than 1,200 studies were published (source: PubMed) on mindfulness or meditation. That is an average of 200 studies per month or 50 studies per week. The trend is clearly going up.

But what is meditation research anyway? How does it work? This issue of Science Snack will try to answer these questions. I will explain different study designs to help you understand how scientific studies actually work and how they produce results. As this format is meant to remain a snack and not a multi-course meal, I will not dive into the details of the different designs. The aim is rather to give you a brief overview. Perhaps this knowledge will help you distinguish between good and flawed studies in the future. Get yourself a cup of tea, things are about to get nerdy.

What do the studies measure?

Meditation research aims to combine physiological and psychological measurements. Especially when it comes to the topic of health, combining personal assessments and physical aspects is important and interesting.Psychological datacan be collected using these methods, among others:

-Questionnaires for self-evaluation or assessment by others (e.g. relatives): information on psychological constructs, such as mindfulness, well-being or quality of life -Interviews (non-standardised, partially standardised or fully standardised): information e.g. on challenges and needs of specific target groups -Behavioural observations by experts: information e.g. on experiments about social behaviour -Tests: measured values, e.g. on intelligence, concentration or stress tolerance.

In addition, there are physiological measurements, which often offer interesting and valuable insights into what is happening in the body. Here are a few interesting indicators for this area: -Blood pressure: information about stress levels -Heart rate variability: information about heart health & stress regulation -Skin conductance: information about emotional-affective reactions -Breathing rate: indicators about stress -Brain waves (EEG): information on the brain’s activity mode (I explain brain waves in more detail in the Science Snack on breathing). -Hormone levels: e.g. cortisol - can give clues about stress levels -Brain images (MRI): can give clues about changes in the brain, e.g. in the activity or connection of different areas.

How are the tests carried out?

After researchers define a question, they then have to find suitable methods to verify or falsify their hypothesis. There are various possibilities for this. Qualitative research usually involves interviews. In order to be able to compare and evaluate them reliably, these interviews are often standardised or partially standardised. What does this mean?

-In non-standardised surveys, the interviewers often only have a set keywords to guide them. The answers here can be quite open. -Partially standardised interviews contain predetermined questions where the order of the questions and the possible answers can vary. -For fully standardised interviews, both the questions (incl. their order) are precisely predefined, as are the possible answers (e.g. a scale, or yes/no). There are usually only a few or no open questions here.

In order to obtain the results, the interviews are analysed using structured methods. This involves looking for similarities and differences in the answers. In the end, the best case scenario is that the results provide added value for science, the general population or specific target groups. This could be, for example, to learn more about the needs of specific groups in order to develop tailor-made programmes.

For example, if researchers want to create a mindfulness programme for schools, it may be helpful to start by interviewing teachers, parents, children, school administrators, school social workers and all other stakeholders to find out their needs. In such cases, partially standardised interviews could make sense because there is a structure with relevant topics - e.g. stressful experiences, challenges and exercise capacities - but there is also the possibility to include impulses from the target groups. This approach can therefore be useful in order to first explore new areas of application and to get an overview of needs and possible added values.

The most common method used in meditation research is quantitative study. After all, this approach is usually more efficient for collecting data from many participants. And with a large data set, the reliability and significance of the results also increases. But how does quantitative research work? It involves collecting data that can be numerically coded - i.e. expressed in numbers - and then analysed. This method enables certain scales and constructs to be measured as objectively as possible, compared and appropriate conclusions to be drawn. The Five Facets of Mindfulness questionnaire, for example, has five scales that can be analysed individually. It can therefore show, for example, that the facet do not evaluate is related to how happy we are - while the facet described tends not to play a role.

Meta-analyses are also interesting. Here, researchers summarise the results of numerous studies on one topic in a single paper. First, they conduct thorough research so that all relevant studies can be included in the analysis. In the course of this, the results of the individual studies are analysed and discussed collectively. The great advantage of meta-analyses is that they can often access much larger amounts of data than a single study. This can then reinforce the significance of the result. After all, the higher the number of cases, the more meaningful the results.

Summary

The choice between a qualitative or quantitative approach depends primarily on the question at hand. There is no such thing as better or worse. The two methods can also complement each other. Let’s say we want to create a mindfulness programme for people in traineeships. Our approach could look like this: 1.First we look for studies on the topic, especially meta-analyses, to get an overview. Meta-analyses are particularly useful because they are usually based on large amounts of data and thus offer reliable information. Based on the insights we have gained from this analysis, we create a semi-standardised interview that we use to determine the exact needs of people entering the workforce. 2.In the next step, we might be interested in what influence mindfulness has on certain parameters in the lives of the target group. 3.For this, we select suitable psychological questionnaires and conduct a broad quantitative study. We can then use the findings to create a mindfulness programme. In the next section you will learn how we can evaluate this observation.

Will something be changed?

Another interesting aspect of studies on mindfulness and meditation is often whether or not to carry out interventions - i.e. programmes with the aim to change something. In studies without intervention, different aspects - e.g. mindfulness level and stress level - are often collected and then analysed with regard to their correlations.

In intervention studies, the focus is on change. There are different possibilities here, for example:

-There will be a pre-post comparison within a group. For example, the study participants are part of a meditation course. Before and after the study, data is collected, which provides the basis for comparison and analysis.

-An intervention group is compared with at least one control group. Pre-post comparisons are often made here as well, or data is collected at several measurement points and also afterwards. There are also different possibilities for the design of control groups, an important difference being between active control groups, which also receive treatment, and passive control groups, which do not receive treatment. Frequently used methods may look like this, for example:

-The so-called waiting list control group: The test subjects in this group wait while the intervention group completes their activities. Afterwards, they receive the same offer as the intervention group.

-The comparison with treatment as usual (TAU). There are standard procedures for some therapeutic areas. These can also form a control group. This allows innovative procedures to be compared with tried and tested ones.

-In many cases, different control groups are used. For example, mindfulness meditation can be compared with progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training and a theoretical knowledge course. In addition, there may be a passive control group that receives no intervention at all. Of course, study designs can be much more detailed. Important aspects can also depend on the time of measurement, the sample size or the calculation methods. Nevertheless I hope this Science Snack provided you with a good overview of the commonly used research methods in meditation science and that you were able to discover new aspects that you didn’t know about before.