Yoga – a laborious way to well-being: patients’ experiences of yoga as a treatment for hypertension in primary care

Figures & data

Table 1. Description of the 13 participants.

				Change (+, − or 0) during intervention period
Interview person	Age	Gender	Health Care Centre	SBP/DBP (mm Hg)	QOL/SRH	PSS	HADA	HADD
1	51	Male	1	−14/−15	+/0	−13	−3	−3
2	70	Female	1	−5/+4	+/0	−1	0	+2
3	73	Female	1	−15/−5	0/0	−6	+1	−3
4	68	Male	2	+4/+2	0/0	+1	−1	−1
5	70	Female	2	+10/+13	−/0	+1	+1	−1
6	57	Female	2	−1/−11	+/+	−9	−4	−1
7	79	Male	2	−22/−4	+/+	−1	−1	−2
8	71	Female	2	−9/−3	+/+	−1	−1	−2
9	59	Female	2	−10/−10	+/+	−6	−2	−1
10	35	Male	3	−10/−3	+/0	−18	−12	−6
11	69	Male	3	+3/−1	0/0	−5	+2	0
12	58	Female	3	−28/−12	0/0	−1	−6	−1
13	79	Female	3	+3/+6	0/0	−1	+1	−1
Cancelled	66	Female	3	+8/+1	0/0	−6	−2	0

DBP: diastolic blood pressure; HADA: hospital anxiety and depression scale (anxiety score); HADD: hospital anxiety and depression scale (depression score); PSS: perceived stress scale; QOL: quality of life; SBP: systolic blood pressure; SRH: self-rated health.

Figure 1. Interview guide.

Figure 2. Categories and themes. Each of the two themes originated from three categories.

Table 2 Example of workflow for text condensation and coding.

Preliminary theme	Meaning unit	Code	Subcategory	Category	Theme
Illness stigma	IP ‘G’: I believe I had 210 over 140 or something like that, when I was sitting there. And I felt nothing. And that meant that you became a little bit like this, what is this, really?	Confusion/lack of knowledge	Fear of outcomes	Anxiety	Hypertension- a silent disease
Own responsibility	IP ‘C’: …you get a little self-awareness and know that you can affect it yourself. This also means that you become responsible for your own body. […] you have your own life, and in a way you are the director of it.	Lifestyle	Possibilities/ Opportunities	Insight into lifestyle impact	Hypertension – a silent disease
Time	IP ‘M’: …it is perhaps a bit much, I don’t know. Even if it sounds like a piece of cake – 15 minutes in the morning and then another 15. Yes, it’s difficult. Some people might think it works fine for them.	Length of time	Time-consuming	Ambivalence/ Resistance	Yoga – a laborious way to well-being
Experiences	IP ‘H’: I thought you almost became a little like, you came into some sort of great calmness and it was your own moment. It was positive. I felt quite good from it.	Calm/well-being	Calm	Harmony	Yoga – a laborious way to well-being

Table 3. Categories and examples of quotations for the themes.

Themes	Category	Quotations
Yoga – a laborious way to well-being	Harmony	IP ‘A’: Yes, I could feel that something was happening in my body, but I couldn’t say what it was and I couldn’t tell where it was, it was just like…ahh [sigh] a boost […] It was wonderful.
	To do something that is good for me	IP ‘L’: …when I can’t sleep more than six, seven, five hours, I can use this. I actually use this method from the yoga that you lay down and breathe in this way. I experience it as a real powernap. IP “C”: …it just feels so good those 15 minutes […] to create that forum every morning and evening.
	Ambivalence/Resistance	IP ‘G’: I perceive it as something very soothing, but at the same time I felt like, do I really have time for this? So it was pretty easy to think that I could just skip it. IP “I”: And then it took time also, that was the only negative I have with it. It simply took time. It took 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening.
Hypertension – the silent disease	Stigma	IP ‘G’: And it was not exactly fun, for there you suddenly felt sick, from not having to think about anything and the second after I simply felt sick. IP ‘D’: My hope is that I could stop taking the medicine.
	Anxiety	IP ‘F’: I had both a mother and a grandmother who had a cerebral haemorrhage because of it. And well, it is the thought of that which makes me not want to encounter the same thing. IP ‘I’: Yes, I know that having too high blood pressure is a strain on the heart and everything in here, which is not good after all.
	Insight on lifestyle impact	IP ‘M’: I think that it is a welfare disease and it is a little self-inflicted. I should, you know…if I had sort of lost weight and not drunken alcohol and exercised, then it certainly would have gotten better.