Table 1

Analysis of effects of MBPs, when compared with active/passive controls or delivered as a selective/universal intervention for selected outcomes

	k	Total n	Intervention effects					Heterogeneity			Publication bias (Egger)
	k	Total n	Mean effect size (d)	SE	95% CI	z	P value	Q value	P value	I²	t	P value
Anxiety/stress
All	36	11 530	0.14	0.04	(0.06 to 0.23)	3.25	<0.01	70.42	<0.01	50	4.08	<0.01
Active controls	17	1705	0.11	0.05	(0.02 to 0.21)	2.32	<0.05	10.17	0.86	0	1.49	0.16
Passive controls	21	9967	0.12	0.06	(−0.01 to 0.38)	2.05	<0.05	56.32	<0.01	64	2.51	<0.05
Selective intervention	18	1132	0.24	0.07	(0.11 to 0.37)	3.64	<0.01	18.98	0.33	10	0.55	0.59
Universal intervention	18	10 452	0.08	0.05	(−0.02 to 0.18)	1.64	0.1	34.86	<0.01	51	2.89	<0.05
Attention
All	24	2920	0.21	0.07	(0.07 to 0.36)	2.89	<0.01	71.96	<0.01	68	1.3	0.21
Active controls	11	1503	0.04	0.05	(−0.06 to 0.14)	0.73	0.47	8.74	0.56	0	0.11	0.92
Passive controls	14	1435	0.35	0.12	(0.11 to 0.58)	2.91	<0.01	53.89	<0.01	76	0.9	0.38
Selective intervention	9	763	0.34	0.17	(−0.01 to 0.66)	2.02	<0.05	33.12	<0.01	76	0.75	0.48
Universal intervention	15	2142	0.16	0.08	(0.01 to 0.32)	2.06	<0.05	36.28	<0.01	61	0.74	0.47
Depression
All	30	16 424	0.09	0.04	(0.02 to 0.17)	2.39	<0.05	70.93	<0.01	59	2.27	<0.05
Active controls	13	6002	0.1	0.07	(−0.04 to 0.23)	1.42	0.16	36.8	<0.01	67	1.1	0.3
Passive controls	19	12 802	0.06	0.04	(−0.02 to 0.13)	1.43	0.15	35.12	<0.05	46	1.87	0.08
Selective intervention	16	946	0.21	0.11	(0.004 to 0.42)	2	<0.05	34.6	<0.01	57	0.81	0.43
Universal intervention	14	15 478	0.05	0.04	(−0.02 to 0.12)	1.31	0.19	30.45	<0.01	57	1.29	0.22
Executive Functions
All	36	11 618	0.25	0.06	(0.13 to 0.36)	4.22	<0.01	147.47	<0.01	76	3.49	<0.01
Active controls	14	1887	0.04	0.05	(−0.06 to 0.13)	0.76	0.45	13.25	0.43	2	0.86	0.41
Passive controls	25	9890	0.35	0.08	(0.19 to 0.52)	4.19	<0.01	140.9	<0.01	83	3.65	<0.01
Selective intervention	13	966	0.39	0.13	(0.14 to 0.65)	3.07	<0.01	38.35	<0.01	69	1.2	0.26
Universal intervention	23	10 652	0.19	0.06	(0.06 to 0.31)	2.89	<0.01	91.96	<0.01	76	2.31	<0.05
Mindfulness
All	25	10 532	0.16	0.06	(0.04 to 0.29)	2.55	<0.05	84.65	<0.01	72	3.9	<0.01
Active controls	14	1628	0.24	0.01	(0.06 to 0.42)	2.61	<0.01	34.23	<0.01	62	1.1	0.29
Passive controls	12	8918	0.03	0.07	(-0.11 to 0.16)	0.4	0.69	25.85	<0.01	57	2.36	<0.05
Selective intervention	11	447	0.29	0.1	(0.09 to 0.50)	2.83	<0.01	12.19	0.27	18	0.04	0.97
Universal intervention	14	10 085	0.1	0.07	(−0.04 to 0.24)	1.44	0.15	58.24	<0.01	78	2.64	<0.05
Negative Behaviour
All	23	10 318	0.21	0.06	(0.09 to 0.33)	3.4	<0.01	73.14	<0.01	70	3.22	<0.01
Active controls	8	999	0.13	0.1	(−0.06 to 0.32)	1.31	0.19	13.86	0.054	49	0.23	0.83
Passive controls	17	9462	0.23	0.08	(0.08 to 0.37)	3.02	<0.01	59.39	<0.01	73	2.95	<0.01
Selective intervention	12	1185	0.1	0.06	(−0.02 to 0.22)	1.69	0.09	6.94	0.8	0	1.74	0.11
Universal intervention	11	9133	0.31	0.1	(0.10 to 0.51)	2.99	<0.01	65.17	<0.01	85	2.86	<0.05
Social Behaviour
All	18	10 051	0.13	0.07	(−0.01 to 0.26)	1.84	0.07	70.41	<0.01	76	2.3	<0.05
Active controls	8	1257	−0.03	0.13	(−0.27 to 0.22)	−0.21	0.83	25.17	<0.01	72	1.22	0.27
Passive controls	11	8915	0.21	0.09	(0.04 to 0.39)	2.34	<0.05	44.05	<0.01	77	4.72	<0.01
Selective intervention	7	570	−0.11	0.18	(−0.47 to 0.24)	−0.63	0.53	19.24	<0.01	69	1.49	0.2
Universal intervention	11	9481	0.2	0.08	(0.04 to 0.36)	2.43	<0.05	50.6	<0.01	80	5.28	<0.01
Well-being
All	10	11 889	0.03	0.05	(−0.06 to 0.13)	0.71	0.48	21.63	<0.05	58	1.12	0.3
Active controls	7	3171	0.11	0.07	(−0.04 to 0.25)	1.43	0.15	9.87	0.13	39	0.78	0.47
Passive controls	6	10 094	−0.1	0.05	(−0.20 to 0.01)	−1.83	0.07	11.67	<0.05	57	1.13	0.32
Selective intervention	1	71	−0.61	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Universal intervention	9	11 818	0.05	0.04	(−0.04 to 0.13)	1.05	0.29	16.3	<0.05	51	2.47	<0.05

d, cohen’s d; k, number of studies; MBPs, mindfulness-based programmes; p, significance level; Q, positive false discovery rate; t, Egger’s regression.