Abstract
BackgroundFalls are a major health care concern for our aging population. Previous research has identified impaired sustained attention as a risk factor for falls. Recently, meditation has been shown to improve different types of attention in various populations. However, there are no studies to date examining whether meditation training can improve sustained attention and mobility in older adults.MethodsWe are conducting a 4-week proof-of-concept meditation intervention. We will recruit community-dwelling older adults. Participants will be randomized into one of two groups: (1) meditation training or (2) music listening (control). All participants will complete three 20-min group sessions per week and will be encouraged to continue their practice independently on the remaining days each week. Our primary outcome measure is behavioral performance on the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). Our secondary and tertiary outcomes include electroencephalograms (EEG) to assess attention and cognitive processing, mobility, and executive function.DiscussionOur proof-of-concept intervention aims to examine whether meditation training can improve sustained attention in older adults, who are known to be susceptible to falls. Importantly, our research has the potential to inform future clinical trials aimed at improving mobility and reducing falls risk in our aging population.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov ID NCT03417635.
Highlights
IntroductionPrevious research has identified impaired sustained attention as a risk factor for falls
Falls are a major health care concern for our aging population
Relevant for our current study, we previously demonstrated that the number of falls experienced over a 12-month period was negatively associated with sustained attention based on reduced performance on the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) [9]
Summary
Previous research has identified impaired sustained attention as a risk factor for falls. Meditation has been shown to improve different types of attention in various populations. There are no studies to date examining whether meditation training can improve sustained attention and mobility in older adults. There is evidence that meditation can improve attention and executive functioning in healthy young adults [14, 16, 17]. One study found that participants who completed a daily meditation practice showed improved attention in just 4 days [18]. Researchers have replicated these findings in healthy older adults, who significantly improved their performance on an emotional-counting Stroop task measuring attention [19]. There have been studies that have suggested that a consistent meditation practice can act as a neuroprotective agent against cognitive decline that is typical with aging [20]
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