Meditation Practice and Long-Term Mortality in US Adults: A Doubly Robust Analysis of Pooled National Health Interview Survey Cohorts with a Trial-Informed Bayesian Subgroup Analysis

The study examined the association between meditation practice and mortality in American adults using data from the National Health Interview Survey from 2002 to 2017 with follow-up through 2019. The research included 90,041 participants, of whom 9.3% (8,402 individuals) practiced meditation in the past 12 months. During 818,248 person-years of follow-up, there were 10,027 all-cause deaths and 3,040 cardiovascular deaths. Results showed that meditation had no overall significant effect on mortality. However, among individuals with income below 200% of the federal poverty level, signs of a protective effect were observed. Bayesian analysis in high-risk groups similar to clinical trial participants suggested potential benefit for cardiovascular mortality. The authors consider these findings hypothesis-generating for further research.