Trial reportBrain, behavior, and immunity2022
Mindfulness-based stress reduction increases stimulated IL-6 production among lonely older adults: A randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Cardiovascular Mortality: The Role of Health Care System Interventions.Current cardiology reports · 2024Pooled it
- Mindfulness-based stress reduction and loneliness in older adults: two randomized controlled trials.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Article
- A Holistic Wellness Prescription for Parkinson's Disease: Evidence-Based Perspectives and Unmet Needs.Movement disorders clinical practice · 2026Review
- The Role of Psychological Interventions in the Mental Health and Quality of Life of Older Adults: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis of Mindfulness, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Reminiscence-Based Approaches.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2026Review
- Article
- Development of a (digital) mindfulness-informed intervention for older adults in nursing homes: description and reflection of a person-based co-design approach.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Effects of Mind-Body Interventions on Immune and Neuroendocrine Functions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Association between perioperative rate pressure product and postoperative delirium in geriatric patients with hip fracture.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Psychological assessments, allostatic load and gene expression analyses in a randomized controlled trial comparing meditation, yoga, and stress education.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Neuroimmunological impact of media-induced stress: rethinking inflammation and brain-immune crosstalk.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Neural and immune interactions linking early life stress and anhedonia.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- Article
- Review
- Early-life adversities and later-life reproductive patterns in women with fully traced reproductive history.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Understanding the dynamics of inflammatory mediators in response to mind-body movement therapies (MBMTs): A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies in healthy subjects.Brain behavior and immunity integrative · 2023Article
- Employment and family income in psychological and immune outcomes during bereavement.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Loneliness is a potent psychosocial stressor that predicts poor health and mortality among older adults, possibly in part by accelerating age-related declines in immunocompetence. Mindfulness interventions have shown promise for reducing loneliness and improving markers of physical health. In a sample of lonely older adults, this two-arm parallel trial tested whether mindfulness training enhances stimulated interleukin-6 (IL-6) production, a measure of innate immune responsivity. Lonely older adults (65-85 years; N = 190) were randomized to an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) or control Health Enhancement Program (HEP) intervention. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated production of IL-6 was measured in vitro by blinded outcome assessors at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up. Mixed-effects linear models tested time (pre, post, follow-up) by condition (MBSR vs. HEP) effects. As predicted, a significant time × condition effect on stimulated IL-6 production was observed across pre, post, and follow-up timepoints. Significant MBSR vs. HEP differences emerged from pre- to post-intervention (p =.009, d = 0.38) and from pre-intervention to 3-month follow-up (p =.017, d = 0.35), with larger increases in IL-6 production following MBSR compared to HEP. No study-related adverse events were reported. Results show that mindfulness training may be effective for boosting innate immunocompetence among lonely older adults. Given that immunocompetence tends to decline with age, mindfulness training may help to counteract the effects of aging and psychosocial stress on infection risk and recovery from injury.
Indexed as
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.