Conceptual Congruence in Mindfulness-Based Weight Loss Intervention Studies

Whether one kind of mindfulness applies to all situations or only some (i.e., scope) is controversial. Eating may not be an everyday behavior subsumed under everyday mindfulness. To rigorously test the efficacy of mindfulness-based weight loss interventions, researchers must use scales that measure the type of mindfulness manipulated by the intervention. The mixed findings of mindfulness-based weight loss intervention studies may be related to the lack of conceptual congruence (i.e., the pairing of interventions and measures of the same scope). The aims of this systematic review were to: (a) describe the scopes of the mindfulness interventions and measures used in mindfulness-based weight loss intervention studies and (b) compare conceptual congruence to the statistical significance of mindfulness and weight outcomes of each study. All articles published prior to December 31, 2016 were retrieved from PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Embase. After screening and full-text review, eight articles were included in the review. Five studies paired mindfulness-based eating interventions with general mindfulness measures; two studies paired mindfulness-based eating interventions with eating-specific mindfulness measures; and one study paired a general mindfulness intervention with a general mindfulness measure. There was no apparent relationship between conceptual congruence and the statistical significance of the mindfulness and weight outcomes. However, given other findings and the limitations of this review, further investigation is needed. In particular, future studies should include mediation analyses using both general and eating-specific mindfulness measures.