REVIEW article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1524898
This article is part of the Research TopicReviews and Applications of Implementation Research in Aging and Public HealthView all 14 articles
Meditation for subjective cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
- 2West China Fourth Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
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Background: Meditation has gained increasing recognition as a simple, cost-effective, and noninvasive therapeutic approach for older adults with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer's disease (AD). This meta-analysis aimed to systematically evaluate its effectiveness on this population. Methods: A comprehensive search across nine databases was performed from inception to April 1, 2024, to identify eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The primary outcome was global cognitive performance measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), while the secondary outcomes included sleep quality estimated through the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), health status assessed using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), and depression evaluated with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). This meta-analysis utilized R 4.3.1 software and adhered to the Cochrane Handbook and PRISMA reporting guidelines. Results: A total of 25 RCTs published between 2013 and 2024 involving 2,095 participants were included in this study. The pooled findings demonstrated that meditation significantly improved global cognitive performance (MD 2.22, 95%CI: 0.83 to 3.62, P = 0.002), sleep quality (MD -1.40, 95% CI: -2.52 to -0.27, P = 0.015), and health status (MD 3.50, 95% CI, 0.45 to 6.56, P = 0.020). However, no significant effect was observed on depression compared to the control group (SMD -0.16, 95% CI: -0.63 to 0.31, P = 0.514). Conclusion: This meta-analysis suggests that meditation is an effective adjunct therapy for improving global cognitive performance, sleep quality, and health status in older adults with SCD, MCI, and AD. However, given the heterogeneity and limited sample sizes, these findings should be interpreted with caution. More large-scale and high-quality RCTs are needed to further substantiate these effects.
Keywords: Meditation, Subjective cognitive decline, Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer's disease, Meta-analysis
Received: 08 Nov 2024; Accepted: 22 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tian, Wei, Luo, Peng, Xia, Huai, Xiong and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ying Xiong, West China Fourth Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
Yunhui Chen, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.