Quality-Of-Life, Healthcare Use and Cost of Practice from a Nationally-Representative Australian Survey to inform future economic evaluations of Contemplative practices
September 16, 2025 Cate Bailey, Nicholas T. van Dam, Jonathan N. Davies et al. preprint
A nationally representative Australian survey of 2,065 people found that meditators and other contemplative practitioners had lower unadjusted quality-of-life than non-practitioners, a difference that persisted after accounting for demographics but disappeared when mental health service use was considered. Unmet mental-health service need was highest among meditators (13.9%) versus non-practitioners (2.4%), and 8.9% of the overall sample had unmet need. The average annual cost of contemplative practices was $1,281 per person. The findings provide preliminary data for future cost-effectiveness evaluations of contemplative practices, with the EQ-HWB-9 index performing well as an outcome measure.