The Move Well Study (MW)

Arizona State University (ASU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Effects of Meditative Movement on Body Composition

Treatments: Behavioral: Meditative Movement

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04072133

STUDY00005974

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will explore the effects of meditative movement on body composition in a group of 60 midlife women. Women will participate in 30-minute meditative movement (MM) classes for an eight-week period. Participants will be encouraged to practice MM at home for at least 30 minutes most days per week. Participants will be asked to complete a log of their time spent doing meditative movement outside of classes.

Full description

A growing body of published evidence indicates that meditative movement (MM) practices may be helpful for body composition improvement. Less strenuous forms of exercise that include a focus on the breath and meditative state (i.e., "meditative movement" such as Yoga, Qigong, or Tai Chi) may be easier to adopt for unfit, sedentary, overweight or obese women, which characterizes a large percentage of the general population. Despite this preliminary evidence, no studies have proposed a model for how or why weight loss might occur in MM interventions where the goals are not designated as weight loss, nutritional counseling is not included, and energy expenditure is not at the level assumed to be required to achieve weight loss. The proposed intervention is designed to refine and gather preliminary evidence for a novel "mindful-body-wisdom" model of intervening on improving body composition and to examine the contribution of model factors (psychological and behavioral) of how such a non-diet/non-vigorous exercise intervention might work, in 60 midlife women.

TCE is a simple TC/QG form that was developed by Dr. Roger Jahnke and developed into a standardized research intervention protocol by a team of researchers. It has been used in several prior projects and one recently completed NIH/NCCAM-funded randomized controlled trial (RCT) with breast cancer survivors showing reduction in fatigue and depression, and improved sleep and physical function.

Enrollment: 52 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 45 to 75 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Female
• 45-75 years of age
• Ability to participate in low intensity activity

Exclusion criteria

• Women who are unable to stand for 10-minute segments (e.g., wheelchair or walker bound and too weak)
• Women who are unable to walk

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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52 participants in 1 patient group

Meditative Movement Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will complete the following components of baseline (T1) data collection: demographics, biometric measurements, a heart rate variability assessment, and questionnaires. Participants will be asked to provide six saliva samples via passive drool to measure cortisol levels. Participants will be assigned into hour-long meditative movement (MM) classes for eight weeks total. Participants will be asked to practice their MM skills at home for at least 30 minutes most days per week. The study will distribute hard-copy movement manuals and DVD instruction videos for guidance. Participants will be asked to provide a log of all dates and lengths of their at-home practice. After the eighth class, participants will return for post-intervention (T2) data collection, consisting of biometric measurements, a heart rate variability assessment, and questionnaires. Participants will provide six more saliva samples via passive drool method.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Meditative Movement