Key result
Self-administered mindfulness meditation and heart rate variability biofeedback showed no evidence of efficacy for stress regulation due to low literature quality and high risk of bias.
Why the study?
The study was conducted to appraise the available evidence on self-administered mindfulness meditation and heart rate variability biofeedback for stress regulation.
Do self-administered mindfulness meditation and heart rate variability biofeedback improve stress components in adults?
Meta-Analysis
Do self-administered mindfulness meditation and heart rate variability biofeedback improve stress components in adults?
Current evidence does not support the efficacy of self-administered mindfulness meditation or heart rate variability biofeedback for stress regulation due to poor literature quality.
Does not support clinical use of self-administered mindfulness or HRV biofeedback for stress; leaves open efficacy pending rigorous RCTs.
We conducted a pre-registered meta-analysis to appraise available evidence on two stress regulation strategies: Self-administered mindfulness meditation and heart rate variability biofeedback. We used a combination of keywords to find as many experimental and observational studies as possible, all of which highlighted a link between the two strategies and different components of stress (physiological, affective, and cognitive) and affective consequences of stress. To provide publication bias-corrected estimates, we employed multilevel regression-based methods and permutation-based selection models. We found no evidence for the efficacy of either strategy, which is mostly due to the low quality of the literature, high heterogeneity, high risk of bias, and the lack of Registered Reports. We recommend against relying on these interventions prior to obtaining a more reliable evidence base.
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Sparacio et al. (2021) conducted a meta-analysis in Stress. Self-administered mindfulness meditation and heart rate variability biofeedback was evaluated on Components of stress (physiological, affective, and cognitive) and affective consequences of stress. Self-administered mindfulness meditation and heart rate variability biofeedback showed no evidence of efficacy for stress regulation due to low literature quality and high risk of bias.
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