Table 3.

Intervention characteristics

Author/s and year	Study design	Intervention style	Intervention	Outcome measures	Effectiveness of intervention
Barbosa et al. (2013)	Controlled before/after trial	Face-to-face and self-guided	MBSR (Jon Kabat-Zinn) 1 × week × 8 weeks 2.5 h per week 1 × 8 h in 6th week	Anxiety, stress, mindfulness, physician empathy	Significant decrease in anxiety and increase in empathy at weeks 8 and 11 compared with baseline
Beck et al. (2017)	Controlled before/after trial	Face-to-face	Mindfulness procedure (Beck and Verticchio, 2014a) 1 × week × 7 weeks  ~ 20 min	Stress, mindfulness, self-compassion	Decreased perceived stress, negative aspects of perfectionism and biological markers of stress. Increase in self compassion
Burgstahler and Stenson (2019)	Single cohort, before/after trial	Online	Mindfulness meditation intervention (Palouse online MBSR Meditation) 5–12 min practice per day × 8 weeks	Anxiety, stress, mindfulness, heart rate variability	Significant increase in mindfulness. Significant decrease in stress and anxiety. Greater changes with longer duration of mindfulness sessions
Call et al. (2014)	Controlled before/after trial	Pre-recorded instructor/facilitator	Hatha yoga and body scan (pre-recorded; narrated by Jon Kabat-Zinn) 3 × weeks for 3 weeks 45-min sessions	Depression, anxiety, stress, mindfulness	Significantly greater reduction in anxiety and stress in the intervention group compared with controls. No significant difference in post-intervention mindfulness
de Vibe et al. (2013)	Controlled before/after trial	Pre-recorded instructor/facilitator	MBSR program (based on Kabat-Zinn) 7 weeks 2.5 h per session	Stress, mindfulness, mental distress	Moderate effect on mental distress and a small effect on subjective wellbeing and mindfulness. Higher level of programme attendance predictive of these changes. Significant results only for females
Dyrbye et al. (2017)	Single cohort, before/after trial	Face-to-face	Stress Management and Resilience Training (SMART) program 10–12 h spread across a semester	Stress, empathy, medical outcomes, resilience, happiness	No apparent significant effect of program Mean mental quality of life and happiness declined and stress increased across the program
Erogul et al. (2014)	Randomised controlled trial	Face-to-face and self-guided	MBSR 1 × week for 8 weeks 75 min per session	Stress, mindfulness, compassion, resilience	Significant increase in self-compassion and reduction in perceived stress in the intervention group at the conclusion of the trial. Self-compassion changes maintained 6 months post-study but not perceived stress. No significant change in resilience after the intervention
Greeson et al. (2015)	Single cohort, before/after trial	Face-to-face and self-guided	Mind–body medicine: a skill building and self-care workshop 1 × week for 4 weeks 1.5 h per session	Stress, mindfulness, qualitative evaluation	Decrease in perceived stress and increase in mindfulness
Hassed et al. (2009)	Single cohort, before/after trial	Face-to-face and self-guided	Health Enhancement Program (HEP): Essence and SRP: mindfulness-based stress management and cognitive therapy program (Hassed, 2002) 1 × week for 6 weeks 2-h duration	Depression, anxiety, distress, quality of life	Significant improvement in depression and hostility subscales, but not in the anxiety subscale
Kang et al. (2009)	Controlled before/after trial	Face-to-face	Mindfulness meditation 1 × week for 8 weeks 1.5 h per session	Depression, anxiety, stress	Significant improvement in anxiety and stress scores but not depression in intervention group when compared with control group
Kuhlmann et al. (2016)	Single cohort, before/after trial	Face-to-face	Yoga and meditation intervention 1 × week × 5 weeks 1.5 h per session	Anxiety, stress, mindfulness	Significant decrease in stress and anxiety and significant increase in mindfulness
Lemay et al. (2019)	Randomised controlled trial	Face-to-face and self-guided	MediMind: combination mindfulness and CBT 1 × week × 5 weeks 1.5 h per session	Depression, anxiety, stress	No significant interaction effects on any of the outcome measures (high dropout rate of participants limited findings)
Neto et al. (2020)	Randomised controlled trial	Face-to-face and self-guided 6 weeks	Mindfulness course (Kabat-Zinn) 1 × week for 6 weeks 2-hsessions	Depression, mindfulness, quality of life, religiousness	No significant differences between intervention and control groups in any of the outcome measures
Newsome et al. (2012)	Single cohort, before/after trial	Face-to-face and self-guided	Qigong, yoga, sitting and walking meditation, body scan 1 × week for 8 weeks 1.5 h	Anxiety, stress, mindfulness, empathy	Significant decrease in perceived stress. Significant increase in mindfulness and self-compassion. Effects lasted 4 weeks post-intervention
Phang et al. (2016)	Single cohort, before/after trial	Face-to-face and self-guided	Mindfulness Based Cognitive Training (adapted from MBSR) 1 × week for 4 weeks 2 h per session	Stress, mindfulness, general health, course feedback	Significant reduction in perceived stress and significant increase in mindfulness
Phang et al. (2015)	Single cohort, before/after trial	Face-to-face and self-guided	Mindfulness Based Stress Management (MBSM) 1 × week for 5 weeks 2-h sessions	Stress, mindfulness, general health, course feedback	Significant improvements in mindfulness, perceived stress, mental distress and self-efficacy at one week post intervention. At six months post intervention higher reported self-efficacy, but no difference in other outcome measures
Rimes and Wingrove (2011)	Single cohort, before/after trial	Face-to-face and self-guided	Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Based on Segal et al. (2002) 1 × week × 8 weeks Duration not specified	Depression, stress, mindfulness, empathy,	Significant increase in self-compassion and mindfulness. More frequent home practice was associated with larger decreases in stress, anxiety and rumination and larger increases in empathy
Roulston et al. (2018)	Controlled before/after trial	Face-to-face and self-guided	MBSR (Kabat-Zinn) 1 × week for 6 weeks 2 h per session	Stress, resilience, course feedback	Significant changes in scores for well-being, stress and resilience for the intervention group, but not for the control group
Shearer et al. (2016)	Randomised controlled trial	Face-to-face	MBSR (Kabat-Zinn) Dog therapy (active control) 1 × week for 4 weeks 1 h per session	Depression, anxiety, mindfulness, heart reaction (ECG)	Mindfulness intervention group showed significantly lower state anxiety than other groups. Dog therapy less anxiety than control Both dog therapy and mindfulness group had significantly less dysphoria than control. Mindfulness group exhibited more adaptation to physiological stress response than both other groups
Song and Lindquist (2015)	Randomised controlled trial	Face-to-face and self-guided	Mindfulness Meditation 1 × week for 8 weeks 2 h per session	Depression, anxiety, stress, mindfulness	Significantly greater decrease in depression, anxiety and stress. Significantly greater increase in mindfulness
Spadaro and Hunker (2016)	Single cohort, before/after trial	Online and online discussion forum	Adapted MBSR 1 × week for 8 weeks Duration not specified	Depression, anxiety, stress, cognition	Significant reduction in stress. Decreasing trend for anxiety
Szuster et al. (2020)	Single cohort, before/after trial	Face-to-face and self-guided	Adapted MBSR Every 2 weeks over 8 weeks (4 sessions) 2 h per session	Depression, anxiety, professional satisfaction and course engagement	Significant reduction in burnout. Depression and anxiety screening scores trended towards improvement. Not maintained after 3 months (returned to pre-intervention levels)
van Dijk et al. (2017)	Randomised controlled trial	Face-to-face and self-guided	MBSR (Kabat-Zinn) 1 × week for 8 weeks 2 h per session	Mindfulness, empathy, psychological distress, life satisfaction	Small reduction in psychological distress and dysfunctional cognitions and a moderate increase in positive mental health, life satisfaction and mindfulness skill at 20-month follow-up. No significant effect on empathy
Warnecke et al. (2011)	Randomised controlled trial	Self-guided (recorded content)	MBSR (Audio CD 'mindfulness') Home practice Everyday for 8 weeks 30 min	Depression, anxiety, stress, mindfulness	Significant reductions in scores on Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and anxiety component of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS). Borderline significant effect on the stress component of DASS. Maintained at 8 weeks post-trial