Older Adults’ Mindful Journal Reflections On Perceived Health Related Quality Of Life

PURPOSE: To determine whether mindful meditation coupled with journaling is effective in the reduction of perceived stress and worry and positively influences the overall perceived health related quality of life (HRQOL) for older adults. METHODS: Twenty-six participants engaged in a 12-week mindfulness-based journaling intervention, comprised of 30-minute mindful meditation sessions consisting of deep breathing exercises and body scans followed by thematic journaling. Qualitative procedures for this phenomenological study consisted of: (1) identifying a phenomenon to study, (2) bracketing out the researcher’s individual experiences, (3) collecting the data from the participants who experienced the phenomenon (4) analyze the data. For quantitative measures, participants’ responses to the psychosocial instruments were compared pre-post phenomena, the percentage change was calculated using the following formula: % change = (V2 − V1) |V1| × 100. The study aligned the percentage changes with quotes from participant journals to provide their voice and perceptions, hoping to illuminate the meaning behind the quantifiable changes. RESULTS: Pre to post intervention mean increases were noted for perceptions of the attention trait of mindfulness, HRQOL, and stress and a mean decrease in worry. These results aligned with qualitative findings (Table 1.) CONCLUSION: Mindful meditation-based journaling shows promise as a low cost, non-pharmacological therapy for improving HRQOL in older adults and should be considered for inclusion and exploration in future research within older adults to further explore its impact on physical and mental health outcomes.Michigan HealthEndowment Fund Grant R-2103-148372