Online mindfulness lowered anxiety scores in breast cancer survivors
Breast cancer survivors with elevated anxiety reported lower anxiety scores after an online mindfulness program than a waitlist group. The abstract leaves the clinical importance of that difference unclear.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Among breast cancer survivors with elevated anxiety, online mindfulness training reduced anxiety scores compared with waiting for the program. Depression, fatigue, insomnia and cancer-related worry also improved after the intervention, while vasomotor symptom scores showed no clear change. The abstract does not establish how meaningful the average anxiety-score difference was in participants’ daily lives.
The comparison was with a waitlist, so the abstract cannot show how mindfulness compares with another active program. It does not report whether the anxiety-score difference met a threshold for meaningful improvement.
What researchers found
Anxiety questionnaire score difference
After the 8-week program versus waitlist: mean difference, reported confidence interval -6.79 to -1.46.
What the result measured
The main result was a difference in anxiety questionnaire scores between groups after the program. This describes reported symptoms; the abstract does not explain how that average difference translated into everyday functioning.
Follow-up answers a separate question
The proportion meeting the study’s criterion for clinically significant anxiety declined during follow-up in the mindfulness group and stayed relatively stable among controls. The abstract gives no follow-up between-group anxiety-score estimate with a confidence interval.
The original publication
Effectiveness of an online mindfulness-based stress-reduction intervention to reduce anxiety in breast cancer survivors: a randomized-controlled trial.
Ferrigno Guajardo A, Salazar-Alejo M, Mesa-Chavez F et al.
Support Care Cancer · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40555874
- Record checked
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