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Impact of a short home-based yoga programme on blood pressure in patients with hypertension: a randomized controlled trial in primary care.

Wolff, Moa LU ; Rogers, K ; Erdal, Björn LU ; Chalmers, J P ; Sundquist, Kristina LU and Midlöv, Patrik LU orcid (2016) In Journal of Human Hypertension 30(10). p.599-605
Abstract
The present study was designed to evaluate yoga's impact on blood pressure (BP) and quality of life (QOL) and on stress, depression and anxiety in patients with hypertension in a primary care setting. We conducted a multi-centre randomized controlled trial with follow-up after 12-week intervention completion. Adult primary care patients diagnosed with hypertension were randomly allocated to yoga or usual care. The intervention group performed a short home-based Kundalini yoga programme 15 min twice-daily during the 12-week intervention period. At baseline and follow-up, the participants underwent standardized BP measurements and completed questionnaires on QOL, stress, anxiety and depression. Data obtained from 191 patients (mean age 64.7... (More)
The present study was designed to evaluate yoga's impact on blood pressure (BP) and quality of life (QOL) and on stress, depression and anxiety in patients with hypertension in a primary care setting. We conducted a multi-centre randomized controlled trial with follow-up after 12-week intervention completion. Adult primary care patients diagnosed with hypertension were randomly allocated to yoga or usual care. The intervention group performed a short home-based Kundalini yoga programme 15 min twice-daily during the 12-week intervention period. At baseline and follow-up, the participants underwent standardized BP measurements and completed questionnaires on QOL, stress, anxiety and depression. Data obtained from 191 patients (mean age 64.7 years, s.d. 8.4) allocated to yoga intervention (n=96) and control group (n=95), with a total proportion of 52% women, showed a significant reduction in systolic and diastolic BP for both groups (-3.8/-1.7 mm Hg for yoga and -4.5/-3.0 mm Hg for control groups, respectively). However, the BP reduction for the yoga group was not significantly different from control. There were small but significant improvements for the yoga group in some of the QOL and depression measures (P<0.05, Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale, HADS-D) compared with control. The findings of our study, which is the largest study from an OECD country (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) to date, do not support the suggestion from previous smaller studies that yoga lowers the BP. Further clinical trials are needed to confirm these findings. However, the yoga patients had other health benefits.Journal of Human Hypertension advance online publication, 21 January 2016; doi:10.1038/jhh.2015.123. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Journal of Human Hypertension
volume
30
issue
10
pages
599 - 605
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • pmid:26791478
  • scopus:84954520951
  • pmid:26791478
  • wos:000385797000005
ISSN
1476-5527
DOI
10.1038/jhh.2015.123
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
3106d110-2ed8-4d15-b84b-c15713d24e09 (old id 8576725)
alternative location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26791478?dopt=Abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 07:38:16
date last changed
2022-05-16 20:19:46
@article{3106d110-2ed8-4d15-b84b-c15713d24e09,
  abstract     = {{The present study was designed to evaluate yoga's impact on blood pressure (BP) and quality of life (QOL) and on stress, depression and anxiety in patients with hypertension in a primary care setting. We conducted a multi-centre randomized controlled trial with follow-up after 12-week intervention completion. Adult primary care patients diagnosed with hypertension were randomly allocated to yoga or usual care. The intervention group performed a short home-based Kundalini yoga programme 15 min twice-daily during the 12-week intervention period. At baseline and follow-up, the participants underwent standardized BP measurements and completed questionnaires on QOL, stress, anxiety and depression. Data obtained from 191 patients (mean age 64.7 years, s.d. 8.4) allocated to yoga intervention (n=96) and control group (n=95), with a total proportion of 52% women, showed a significant reduction in systolic and diastolic BP for both groups (-3.8/-1.7 mm Hg for yoga and -4.5/-3.0 mm Hg for control groups, respectively). However, the BP reduction for the yoga group was not significantly different from control. There were small but significant improvements for the yoga group in some of the QOL and depression measures (P&lt;0.05, Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale, HADS-D) compared with control. The findings of our study, which is the largest study from an OECD country (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) to date, do not support the suggestion from previous smaller studies that yoga lowers the BP. Further clinical trials are needed to confirm these findings. However, the yoga patients had other health benefits.Journal of Human Hypertension advance online publication, 21 January 2016; doi:10.1038/jhh.2015.123.}},
  author       = {{Wolff, Moa and Rogers, K and Erdal, Björn and Chalmers, J P and Sundquist, Kristina and Midlöv, Patrik}},
  issn         = {{1476-5527}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{10}},
  pages        = {{599--605}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Journal of Human Hypertension}},
  title        = {{Impact of a short home-based yoga programme on blood pressure in patients with hypertension: a randomized controlled trial in primary care.}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/10991357/5146483.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/jhh.2015.123}},
  volume       = {{30}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}