Eight-Week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Cognitive Function in Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Active-Controlled Trial

This study investigates effects of 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on cognitive function trajectories in older adults with mild cognitive impairment compared to an active health education control within the context of geriatric psychology and cognitive neuroscience, an area of growing scientific importance given its implications for clinical MCI management programs, community brain health initiatives, and cognitive aging intervention development. Using double-blind assessor randomized controlled trial with MBSR (8 weekly 2.5-hour sessions) versus active health education control, measuring neuropsychological battery at baseline, 8 weeks, and 12 months, we examine mindfulness training reducing stress-related cortisol elevation and amygdala hyperactivity, reducing default mode network interference with hippocampal memory encoding and prefrontal executive control in 182 older adults with MCI (91 per arm, mean age 72.4 years, 58% female, mean MoCA 21.8) from two memory clinic sites drawn from community MBSR program delivery in clinic-adjacent meditation rooms and online for remote participants enrolled 2018-2020. Results indicate that MBSR produces 2.4-point greater MoCA improvement at 8 weeks versus control (p<0.001) and 1.8-point advantage maintained at 12 months, with RAVLT delayed recall showing largest between-group effect size (d=0.58) (p < 0.001), with +2.4 MoCA points at 8 weeks; d=0.58 for RAVLT delayed recall as the primary quantitative benchmark. Concordance between primary and confirmatory measurement approaches exceeded 93%, validating the analytical framework. These findings contribute empirically to geriatric psychology and cognitive neuroscience and carry actionable implications for the design of programs and policies targeting clinical MCI management programs, community brain health initiatives, and cognitive aging intervention development.