The effects of body scan meditation: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Standardized mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has been proved to be effective across many populations while the time commitment for the standardized intervention leads to high attrition rate. To address the problem, there has been a growing interest in conducting a single component of MBSR such as body scan. However, the impact of a sole mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of body scan meditation. A search of databases, including PubMed, Embase, EBSCO, Cochrance, Proquest Dissertations, and Theses, was conducted for randomized controlled trials with no population restriction. Fourteen independent articles were identified and outcomes were divided into seven categories. A meta-analysis with robust variance estimation was conducted separately for different outcome categories. Body scan only had small effect on mindfulness when compared with passive control (Hedge's g = .268, 95% CI = [0.032, 0.504], p < .05). The attrition rate of long-term interventions was low. The quality of these studies was low. There was high heterogeneity across studies. A sole body scan meditation is not effective enough to improve health-related outcomes.