Feasibility and effects of a chair-based yoga program for adults with neurodisability

Abstract

Purpose: This study focuses on exploring the feasibility and the effects of practicing chair-based yoga for 10 weeks on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and interoceptive body awareness (BA) in adults with neurodisability and moderate to severe physical dependence.

Materials and Methods: A pre- and post-testing control group design was followed. Participants were 34 service users at a rehabilitation center. The intervention group (IG, n = 17, 53% men, mean age of 48.6 ± 11.4 years) took part in the 10-week chair-based yoga program. The control group (CG, n = 17, 53% men, mean age of 53.1 ± 11.0 years) received usual care. The outcome measures were feasibility (recruitment rate, attrition, completion rate, adherence, participation, safety and tolerability), HRQoL (WHOQoL-BREF questionnaire), and BA (the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness, MAIA). Participants in the IG completed a questionnaire to measure their personal experience of participating in the program.

Results and Conclusions: This study provides implications for a 10-week chair-based yoga program as a feasible, well-tolerated, and safe intervention, reinforced by the participants’ retrospective judgment. Compared to the CG, the program produced statistically significant improvements over BA, such as subscales of MAIA Noticing (p = .031, Hedges g_s = 0.76), Emotional Awareness (p < .001, Hedges g_s = 1.68), and Trusting (p = .036, Hedges g_s = 0.74), but not HRQoL, for the IG. Chair-based yoga programs could be a rehabilitation strategy in the socio-health care of a varied population with physical mobility impairments leading to wheelchair use.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• A 10-week chair-based yoga intervention was shown to be a feasible, well-tolerated, and safe therapy which allowed people of varying abilities to participate equitable.

• Chair-based yoga can help people with moderate to severe physical dependence due to neurodisability to improve their interoceptive body awareness.

• Chair-based yoga does not have a significant impact on the health-related quality of life of this sample of participants.

Keywords:

• Mobility impairment
• mind-body therapy
• feasibility
• quality of life
• interoceptive body awareness

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all participants for their time and effort in participating, and CRE healthcare staff for assistance with participant recruitment. The authors also acknowledge the valuable contributions of Ana María Lorenzana González and María Teresa Gutiérrez Fuentes to this study, and the institutional support from the CRE Discapacidad y Dependencia (San Andrés del Rabanedo, León), Institute for Older Persons and Social Services (IMSERSO).

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. There has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome. The reported experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed.