Yoga,Anxiety,and Occupational Engagement in Older Adults: A Pilot Study

This pilot study sought to investigate the effects of yoga on mood and occupational engagement in older adults. The purpose of this study was to determine if occupational therapists could effectively use yoga as an intervention to improve occupational engagement in older adult clients. Anxiety is detrimental to the health and occupational engagement of 1/3 older adults, often increasing social isolation and lack of engagement in daily occupations (Chugh-Gupta, Baldassarre & Vrkljan, 2013; Papageorgiou, Marquis, Dare, & Batten, 2016). Many older adults do not utilize effective strategies for managing stress and anxiety (Chugh-Gupta et al., 2013). Yoga offers a strong meditation component which has multiple physiological benefits (Chugh-Gupta et al., 2013). The use of yoga as an occupational therapy intervention aligns with many of the components of OT including the physical, affective, cognitive, spiritual and habits (Chugh-Gupta et al., 2013). While there is ample literature addressing the benefits of yoga on stress and anxiety management, there needs to be more evidence to support OT’s role in the use of yoga as a preparatory intervention for older adults to reduce anxiety and increase occupational engagement (Schmid, Puymbroeck, Portz, Atler, & Fruhauf, 2016 Chugh-Gupta, et al., 2013). With practice trends focused on community practice, OTP’s have an opportunity to use yoga as a non-pharmacological modality to increase occupational engagement in their clients (Goodman, et al., 2019). By using their knowledge and training from the fields of science, medicine and mental health, OTPs possess the expertise to use activity analysis and grading of yoga uniquely for each client, to support increased participation in meaningful occupations (Schmid et al., 2016).

This pilot study utilized both quantitative data and qualitative data. The quantitative data consisted of pre- and post-test paper questionnaires and patient specific functional scale. The qualitative data consisted of semi-structured interviews. The intervention was comprised of a 60-minute chair yoga class, was taught by a certified yoga teacher, using seated poses, spinal twists and meditation. The group met 1x / week for 6 weeks at a retirement community. Voluntary participants consisted of a convenience sample of 5 older adults in retirement community, recruited via mailed invitation, who had a formal or self reported diagnosis of anxiety.

The quantitative data was analyzed by mean comparisons of pre-/post-test survey responses. The qualitative data was analyzed by coding for themes of transcribed qualitative data.

Overall, the quantitative data suggested that 100% of participants perceived some benefit to participating in the yoga group with participant survey scores increasing from the pre-test to the post-test on 4 of the survey questions. These included perceived satisfaction with current routine, perceived improvement in activity level since moving to the retirement community, perceived desire to increase activity level and perceived motivation to attend social activities. Qualitative themes included: Wanted More (of the yoga group), Increased Desire for Social Interaction, Increased Motivation to be Physically Active, Positive Emotional Response and Strong Occupational Engagement (among participants).

Although one of the limitations of this pilot study was a small sample size, based on the data, the majority of participants reported an increase in mood and occupational engagement. Based on both sets of data, meditative movement such as yoga may enhance clients’ occupational engagement. The implications for future research are that the yoga program from this pilot study could be easily replicated by OTP’s with other types of clients and in other settings.

References

Chugh-Gupta, N., Baldassarre, F. G., Vrkljan, B., H. (2013). A systematic review of yoga for state anxiety: Considerations for occupational therapy / Revue systématique sur l’efficacité du yoga pour traiter l’anxiété réactionnelle: Facteurs à considérer en ergothérapie. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, (80) 3, 150-170. https://doi.org/10.1177/0008417413500930

Goodman, V., Wardrope, B., Myers, S., Cohen, S., McCorquodale, L., & Kinsella, E.A. (2019). Mindfulness and human occupation: A scoping review. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 26 (3), 157-170, DOI: 10.1080/11038128.2018.1483422

Papageorgiou, N., Marquis, R., Dare, J. & Batten, R. (2016). Occupational therapy and occupational participation in community dwelling older adults: A review of the evidence. Physical and Occupational Therapy in Geriatrics, 34 (1), 21-42. https://doi.org/10.3109/02703181.2015.1109014

Schmid, A. A., Puymbroeck, M. V., Portz, J.D., Atler, K.E. & Fruhauf, C.A. (2016). Merging yoga and occupational therapy (MY-OT): A feasibility and pilot study. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, (28), 44-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2016.08.003