ArticleMindfulness2019
A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Mindfulness-Based Weight Loss Intervention on Cardiovascular Reactivity to Social-Evaluative Threat Among Adults with Obesity.
Article in Mindfulness, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- How Effective Are Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Reducing Stress and Weight? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Mindfulness training fosters a positive outlook during acute stress: A randomized controlled trial.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Trial
- Challenge or Threat? The Effects of the Standard and a Second-Generation Mindfulness Intervention with Buddhist Practices on Cognitive Appraisals of Stress: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Experiment Performed in Switzerland.Journal of religion and health · 2024Trial
- Mindful Eating, Orthorexic Tendency, and Mediterranean Diet Adherence Identify Weight-Related Eating Profiles in Young Adults.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Patterns of Respiration Rate Reactivity in Response to a Cognitive Stressor Associate With Self-Reported Mental Health Outcomes.Psychological reports · 2025Article
- Trait mindfulness in early pregnancy and adverse perinatal outcomes: a prospective cohort study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Dry eye disease and psychosomatics-benefits of mind-body therapy for dry eye disease.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Review
- Weight stigma and mental health symptoms: mediation by perceived stress.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Promoting salutogenic pathways to health through complementary and integrative health approaches.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Deep rest: An integrative model of how contemplative practices combat stress and enhance the body's restorative capacity.Psychological review · 2024Article
- Dysregulated responses to stress and weight in people with type 2 diabetes.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2023Article
- Article
- The Use of Self-Help Strategies in Obesity Treatment. A Narrative Review Focused on Hypnosis and Mindfulness.Current obesity reports · 2021Review
- A brief positive psychological intervention prior to a potentially stressful task facilitates more challenge-like cardiovascular reactivity in high trait anxious individuals.Psychophysiology · 2021Article
- The geroscience agenda: Toxic stress, hormetic stress, and the rate of aging.Ageing research reviews · 2020Review
- The effects of mindfulness training on the level of happiness and blood sugar in diabetes patients.Journal of diabetes and metabolic disorders · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveMindfulness-based interventions have been found to reduce psychological and physiological stress reactivity. In obesity, however, stress reactivity is complex, with studies showing both exaggerated and blunted physiological responses to stressors. A nuanced view of stress reactivity is the "challenge and threat" framework, which defines adaptive and maladaptive patterns of psychophysiological stress reactivity. We hypothesized that mindfulness training would facilitate increased challenge-related appraisals, emotions, and cardiovascular reactivity, including sympathetic nervous system activation paired with increased cardiac output (CO) and reduced total peripheral resistance (TPR) compared to a control group, which would exhibit an increased threat pattern of psychophysiological reactivity to repeated stressors.
methodsAdults (N=194) with obesity were randomized to a 5.5-month mindfulness-based weight loss intervention or an active control condition with identical diet-exercise guidelines. Participants were assessed at baseline and 4.5 months later using the Trier Social Stress Task. Electrocardiogram, impedance cardiography, and blood pressure were acquired at rest and during the speech and verbal arithmetic tasks to assess pre-ejection period (PEP), CO, and TPR reactivity.
resultsMindfulness participants showed significantly greater maintenance of challenge-related emotions and cardiovascular reactivity patterns (higher CO and lower TPR) from pre to post-intervention compared to control participants, but groups did not differ in PEP. Findings were independent of changes in body mass index.
conclusionsMindfulness training may increase the ability to maintain a positive outlook and mount adaptive cardiovascular responses to repeated stressors among persons with obesity though findings need to be replicated in other populations and using other forms of mindfulness interventions.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.