JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Previous studies have indicated that higher subjective well-being would works as a protective factor for health. Some studies have already shown Mindfulness-Based Intervention’s effects on improving subjective well-being. However, they targeted specific populations rather than the general public. Furthermore, they assessed either the life evaluation or affect aspect of subjective well-being, rather than the wholistic concept including eudemonic aspect of well-being.

Objective:

The objective of this study is to investigate the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for improving the wholistic aspects of subjective well-being on healthy individuals.

Methods:

This study is eight-week randomised, parallel-groups superiority trial with two-month follow-up. Healthy individuals aged 20–65 years with scores lower than 25 on the Satisfaction With Life Scale will be eligible participants and randomly allocated to MBCT, or wait-list control. The intervention program is the modified version of MBCT developed by arranging a MBCT program to improve the well-being of a non-clinical population. The primary outcome is the difference in mean change scores from the baseline on the SWLS between the two groups. The secondary outcomes include Flourishing Scale, Scale of Positive and Negative Experience, Incremental Cost Effectiveness Ratio etc.

Results:

This study began recruiting participants in July 2018. The study is still ongoing and data collection will be completed by December 2019.

Conclusions:

This study is unique in that the it investigates MBCT’s effects on the three different aspects of subjective well-being. The limitation of this study is that we cannot detect the specific effect attributable to MBCT because we lack an active control group. Clinical Trial: UMIN Clinical Trials Registry: UMIN000031885. Registered 27 March 2018.