Effect of Mindfulness Breathing Meditation on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress: A Randomized Controlled Trial among University Students

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak has caused various changes in all aspects of human life, including the educational system. These changes have forced students to undertake an adaptive process that has inevitably affected aspects of their life and psychological well-being. Adaptation of learning into online forms in universities, including nursing, triggers depression, stress, and anxiety. The high number of incidences of stress, anxiety, and depression in undergraduate students throughout the pandemic has made it important to prevent and deal with health approaches, such as mindfulness therapy. Objective: This research intended to examine whether an intervention based on mindfulness was effective and had the potential to become an interference to reduce anxiety, stress, and depression in Indonesian university students. Methods: This research applied a randomized controlled trial. One hundred and twenty-two students from Universitas Padjadjaran and other provinces in Indonesia participated in this study, with sixty-one students in each group. A pretest and a post-test were administered before and after the intervention using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-42). The intervention was carried out for 4 weeks with 15 min practice in each session. Results: In this study, there was an effect of mindfulness breathing meditation on decreasing the mean scores for depression, anxiety, and stress in the intervention group. However, only stress (p = 0.007) and anxiety (p = 0.042) showed a significant difference in the post-test results of the intervention and control groups. In addition, there was no difference in the scores of stress, anxiety, and depression for the pre–post-tests in each group based on religion. Conclusion: Mindfulness breathing meditation has an impact on reducing stress and anxiety in students, so it could be applied to all university students in order to develop psychosocial status and mindful attentiveness to one’s needs.