Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Counseling on the Health Promoting Lifestyle in Iranian Middle-Aged Women: An Experimental Study

Abstract

Background: Various psychological, social, and biological factors affect the lifestyles of middle-aged women, and unhealthy lifestyles are primary concerns, according to the World Health Organization. Mindfulness counseling has emerged as a widely used approach to modifying and improving lifestyles. Objectives: This study assessed the effectiveness of mindfulness-based counseling on the health-promoting lifestyle in Iranian middle-aged women. Methods: An experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design and a control group involving 48 middle-aged women who were referred to Comprehensive Health Services Center No. 1 in Lordegan, Iran. The study was initiated in October 2020 and finished in February 2021. The first step was to recruit women through convenience sampling and then randomly assign them to the intervention (n = 24) and control (n = 24) groups. The intervention group received mindfulness counseling from a trained midwife once a week for 8 weeks. Walker's health-promoting lifestyle profile II (HPLP II) was completed at the beginning of the study and 4 weeks after the intervention. Independent and paired t-tests, chi-square, and Fisher's exact tests were used for data analysis in SPSS v. 24. Statistical significance was attributed to a P-value of less than 0.05. Results: Before any intervention, no notable difference was detected in the average health promotion lifestyle in the intervention (113.04 ± 24.05) and control (109.41 ± 15.68) groups (P = 0.539) and the dimensions of both groups (P > 0.05). However, the intervention group showed a significantly higher mean (151.66 ± 14.01) for the health-promoting lifestyle than the control group (107.75 ± 12.27) following the counseling sessions (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Enhancing the health-promoting lifestyle and, subsequently, the quality of life of middle-aged women can be achieved through mindfulness counseling. Therefore, the administration of group counseling incorporating mindfulness techniques is recommended for this population.