The feasibility and impact of a yoga pilot programme on the quality-of-life of adults with acquired brain injury

ABSTRACT

Objective: This pilot study measured the feasibility and impact of an 8-week yoga programme on the quality-of-life of adults with acquired brain injury (ABI).

Methods: Thirty-one adults with ABI were allocated to yoga (n = 16) or control (n = 15) groups. Participants completed the Quality of Life After Brain Injury (QOLIBRI) measure pre- and post-intervention; individuals in the yoga group also rated programme satisfaction. Mann-Whitney/Wilcoxon and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests were used to evaluate between- and within-group differences for the total and sub-scale QOLIBRI scores, respectively.

Results: No significant differences emerged between groups on the QOLIBRI pre- or post-intervention. However, there were significant improvements on overall quality-of-life and on Emotions and Feeling sub-scales for the intervention group only. The overall QOLIBRI score improved from 1.93 (SD = 0.27) to 2.15 (SD = 0.34, p = 0.01). The mean Emotions sub-scale increased from 1.69 (SD = 0.40) to 2.01 (SD = 0.52, p = 0.01), and the mean Feeling sub-scale from 2.1 (SD = 0.34) to 2.42 (SD = 0.39, p = 0.01).

Conclusion: Adults with ABI experienced improvements in overall quality-of-life following an 8-week yoga programme. Specific improvements in self-perception and negative emotions also emerged. High attendance and satisfaction ratings support the feasibility of this type of intervention for people with brain injury.

KEYWORDS:

• Traumatic brain injury
• rehabilitation
• community based rehabilitation
• mindfulness
• community integration

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the LoveYourBrain Foundation for their assistance in recruitment and supporting teachers’ participation. The authors also appreciate the in-kind support given by Jennifer Poljacik and her team at the River Valley Club.

Declaration of interest

All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: KD and DG have done consultancy for the LoveYourBrain Foundation and have received financial support for business travel; KD is married to the Executive Director of the LoveYourBrain Foundation; JL and KL have no relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.