J Agric Med Community Health.  2013 Sep;38(3):163-173.

The Effects of 8-weeks Jeol Meditation Program on Stress, Depression and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Women

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Family Medicine, Emmaus hospital, Korea.
  • 2Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Gyeongsang Institute of Health Science, Gyeongsang National University, Korea. Kys513@gsnu.ac.kr

Abstract


OBJECTIVES
There has been an increase in the use of mind-body therapies to control cardiovascular risk factors recently. This trial was designed to determine whether the 'jeol'(Korean Buddhists' prostration) meditation program, as a new mind-body intervention, was effective in managing stress, depression and controlling cardiovascular risk factors in women working at a geriatric hospital.
METHODS
We conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine whether the 'jeol' meditation program could improve stress, anxiety, depression, and cardiovascular risk factors in women. We randomly assigned 57 participants to the intervention(29 participants) or control(28 participants) group. The subjects in the intervention group participated in a group Jeol meditation program once weekly, and practiced at home. The following variables were assessed: stress(Psychosocial Wellbeing Index), depression(Beck's Depression Inventory), body mass index(BMI), waist circumference, hemoglobin A1c(HbA1c), homeostasis model assessment(HOMA), low-density lipoprotein(LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein(HDL) cholesterol, and triglyceride were assessed.
RESULTS
After the 8-week program, 2 participants from the intervention group and 1 from the control group dropped out. The subjects in the intervention group exhibited decreased scores for stress(t=5.102, p<0.01), depression(t=5.259, p<0.01), BMI(t=2.942, p=0.007), and waist circumference(t=2.582, p=0.016); however these scores did not demonstrate a significant decrease in participants of the control group. The other variables showed no significant difference between the groups.
CONCLUSION
The 'jeol' meditation program evidently reduced stress, anxiety, depression, body weight, and waist circumference in women, which suggests that this program could be employed as a mind-body therapies.

Keyword

Mind-body therapies; Complementary therapies; Exercise movement techniques; 108 bae; 'jeol' meditation

MeSH Terms

Anxiety
Body Weight
Cholesterol
Complementary Therapies
Depression*
Exercise Movement Techniques
Female
Homeostasis
Humans
Meditation*
Mind-Body Therapies
Risk Factors*
Triglycerides
Waist Circumference
Cholesterol
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