Mindfulness-based stress reduction and healthcare utilization in the inner city: preliminary findings.
BACKGROUND
Research on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has focused on measuring symptom reduction in middle-class and working-class populations. The present study examined inner-city patients' healthcare utilization before and after an MBSR intervention.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether completion of an MBSR program resulted in changes in healthcare utilization in an inner-city population.


METHODS
Medical chart review compared the number and diagnoses of health center visits during the year before patients entered the MBSR program with the year following completion of the program.


METHODS
The Community Health Center in Meriden, Conn.


METHODS
The chart review process examined healthcare utilization patterns for 73 patients: 54 who completed the MBSR program in Spanish and 19 who completed the program in English. The focus of this study is a subgroup of 47 patients for whom a complete year of data were available before and after the intervention.


METHODS
An 8-week course in MBSR.


METHODS
The number and diagnoses of patients' health center visits before and after completion of the MBSR program.


RESULTS
A significant decrease in the number of chronic care visits was found among the 47 patients for whom complete data were available. The 36 patients who completed the Spanish courses demonstrated a significant decrease in total medical visits and chronic care visits.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study suggest that MBSR may help contain healthcare costs by decreasing the number of visits made by inner-city patients to their primary care providers after completing the MBSR program.
Roth
Beth
B
Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic and the Department of Public Health in San Francisco, Calif, USA. bethroth@snet.net
Stanley
Tae-Wol
TW
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001945:Breathing Exercises; D003151:Community Health Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003237:Connecticut; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D019122:Meditation; D008875:Middle Aged; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy*; D013997:Time Factors; D019037:Urban Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015013:Yoga