Yoga to Prevent Mobility Limitations in Older Adults

Summary

The loss of mobility during aging impacts independence and leads to further disability, morbidity, and reduced life expectancy. The study objective was to examine the feasibility and safety of conducting a randomized controlled trial of yoga for older adults at risk for mobility limitations. The investigators hypothesized that sedentary older adults could be recruited for the study, would attend either yoga or a health education control, would complete assessments, and that the interventions could be safely delivered.

Conditions

• Aging
• Mobility Limitation
• Sedentary Lifestyle

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Yoga Intervention

The 60-minute yoga sessions began with a brief breathing practice led by the instructor. The yoga instructor then led students through yoga poses at a gentle pace using chairs as props as needed. The pace of the class increased slowly over time as students became more familiar and more capable with the poses. Meditation and breathing was followed by chair poses (15-20 minutes), standing poses (10-15 minutes), floor poses (15 minutes), and lastly a supine resting pose (Savasana; 10 minutes). In the Silver Age Yoga method at that time, there were 73 available postures overall including: 35 Chair Postures, 18 Standing Postures, 20 Floor Postures, with a typical class covering 20-25 poses.

BEHAVIORAL

Healthy Aging Education

The health education comparison intervention consisted of once weekly, 90-minute health information workshops conducted in group format. The 90-minute sessions generally consisted of a 60-minute lecture followed by 30 minutes of questions and discussion. The lecture titles for Weeks 1-10 were as follows: Introduction/ Exploring Communication, The Science of Successful Aging, Acupuncture 101: How it Works \& What it is Good for, Quality of Life/Quality of Well Being, Fighting Cancer With Your Fork, Forgiveness via Shakespeare's: A Winter's Tale, Better Eyesight in Minutes a Day, Brain Fitness, The Importance of Organic Foods/ Organic Gardening, How Dementia Can Be Modified. Lectures were provided by a mix of credentialed experts (physicians/psychologists, etc) and other clinicians. Instructors were asked not to talk about yoga or medication in their lectures. Content was not otherwise closely monitored.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of California, San Diego

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

60 Years

Max Age

89 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2014-01-06

Primary Completion

2014-05-02

Completion

2014-06-30