Heart disease is the leading cause of death among Americans each year, yet the misperception still exists that cardiovascular disease is not a serious health problem for women. Evidence indicates that anxiety contributes to the development of heart disease. The primary purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of Kabat-Zinn's mindfulness-based stress reduction program to reduce anxiety in women with heart disease. Anxiety, emotional control, coping styles, and health locus of control were compared in a treatment and control group of women with heart disease. Post-intervention analyses provide initial support for beneficial effects of this program.

The number of cancer patients seeking complementary mind-body therapies has increased within recent years. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based stress reduction and relaxation program (MBSR) on stress, state anxiety, mental adjustment to cancer, and health locus of control in 27 women with diagnosed breast cancer. Findings indicated significant decreases in pre-to-post stress and state anxiety levels; also, results showed significant and beneficial changes for mental adjustment to cancer and health locus of control scores following completion of the MBSR intervention. These results provide initial support for the application of mindfulnessbased interventions to individuals struggling with the stress and threat of cancer.

Although a plethora of studies exist as to the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions with cancer patients, existential, loss, and grief factors are absent. The primary purpose of this exploratory study was to add to the literature by exploring the pre-post effects of an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention on existential well-being, summed self-identified losses, and grief scores as well as assess mental adjustment to cancer; also, 6-month follow-up data as to intervention maintenance were obtained. Sixty-five women, all of whom had been diagnosed with breast cancer within the past 12 months, participated in this study. The data indicated significant improvements for existential well-being, number of self-identified losses, grief scores as well as three mental adjustment styles. Six-month follow-up revealed that of the 58 responding participants, 88% were maintaining mindfulness strategies at varying schedules on a weekly basis with mindfulness-based walking as the preferred strategy. This is the first known mindfulness-based intervention study to investigate existential, loss, and grief factors in those with cancer. Further investigations earnestly are needed in this area to provide full psychosocial care to those confronting cancer.

While the 8-week stress reduction program for women with heart disease did not show significant interactions between groups for resting levels of stress hormones, physical functioning, or submaximal exercise responses, there was a significant difference in breathing patterns between the 2 groups during exercise following the mindfulness-based stress-reduction program. There was also a trend for change in the intervention group in the resting levels of cortisol and physical function scores that was not seen in the control group. Future studies could use the effect size generated from this pilot study to calculate the number of subjects needed for adequate power to detect significant differences between groups.

PurposeThis study aimed (1) to examine the longitudinal trajectories in objectively measured physical activity (PA); (2) to identify unknown (i.e., latent) subgroups with distinct trajectories; and (3) to examine the correlates of latent subgroups among community dwelling women.MethodsThe study sample included a total of 669 women from the Women's Injury Study, a 5-year prospective cohort study conducted from 2007 in the Southwest Central region of the US. Pedometer-based step-count data across 18 consecutive months were fitted to a latent growth model (LGM) and a latent class growth model (LCGM). Baseline characteristics were regressed on latent class membership.ResultsThe longitudinal change in PA was best fit to a piecewise LGM with seasonal transitions. Significantly increased and decreased levels of PA were observed during the spring, fall, and winter, respectively (p < 0.001). Three latent subgroups with distinct PA trajectories were identified (low-active (46.8%), somewhat-active (41.3%), and active (11.9%)). Age and body fat percentage at the baseline significantly explained the likelihoods of being in low-active subgroup.ConclusionSeasonal variations in PA among women were observed but may not be practically significant. A relatively large portion of the sample showed low levels of PA for long periods. Intervention strategies should be considered for women who are overweight or obese, and aged >40 years old to promote PA during the life course.