This is the full quote, including the bits you left you:
"Mindfulness meditation programs had moderate evidence of improved anxiety... depression... and pain... and low evidence of improved stress/distress and mental health–related quality of life. We found low evidence of no effect or insufficient evidence of any effect of meditation programs on positive mood, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep, and weight."
The same source goes on to conclude,
"Clinicians should be aware that meditation programs can result in small to moderate reductions of multiple negative dimensions of psychological stress"
Mindfulness meditation, which is the only form tied to the 2,500 years of Buddhist meditation tradition, did ok.
Interesting is the graph of the results where you see the mindfulness meditation fared better than the "mantra" meditations pretty much across the board (even though most of it wasn't statistically significant.)
A systematic study on the efficacy of various forms of meditation programs (inc mantra, transcendental, and mindfulness meditation), commissioned by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, was published in 2014.[67] After a review of 17,801 citations, the study based its conclusions on 41 randomized controlled trials with an active control, involving 2,993 participants. The assessment found "no effect or insufficient evidence of any effect of meditation programs on positive mood, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep, and weight."
Study: http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=18097...