Abstract
Background: Physical activity (PA) is essential following an acute cardiac event. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is commonly prescribed, and PA after CR is recommended. Because of age-related changes in functional ability and multi-comorbidity, many older cardiac patients struggle to continue performing PA at home after CR. Depressive symptoms and anxiety are prevalent in cardiac patients and associated with poor self-care, including lack of daily PA. Yoga has been demonstrated to improve psychological and physical health outcomes in cardiac patients, but it is unknown whether yoga, modified for older CR patients – Gentle Yoga – is beneficial in managing psycho- logical distress and maintaining PA following phase II CR. Our specific aims are to:1) determine the feasibility and acceptability of a modified gentle yoga intervention delivered via video conferencing for older cardiac patients; 2) compare, at 3-month follow-up, the effects and determine effect sizes of a gentle yoga intervention versus control on psychological health and physical health.
Methods: We are conducting a 2-group (intervention versus control) randomized controlled pilot study. The intervention is a 12-week gentle yoga program delivered via video conference. Short-term effects will be eval- uated at 3-month.
Conclusion: This study is designed to be suited for older cardiac patients who would not have access to supervised PA opportunities after facility-based CR to enhance PA. This study will provide data about the feasibility and acceptability of the protocol for older cardiac patients and will offer effect sizes to determine sample size for a fully powered randomized controlled trial.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101320
Funding Information
We acknowledge that this project has been supported by the College of Nursing and the RICHH Heart team at the University of Kentucky.
Repository Citation
Cha, Geunyeong; Chung, Misook L.; Heebner, Nicholas R.; Bronas, Ulf G.; Biddle, Martha J.; Lin, Chin-Yen; Kang, JungHee; Wu, Jia-Rong; Thompson, Jessica H.; Thapa, Ashmita; and Moser, Debra K., "Protocol for a feasibility randomized controlled trial of gentle yoga in older patients discharged from phase II cardiac rehabilitation" (2024). UK CARES Faculty Publications. 27.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ukcares_facpub/27
Notes/Citation Information
2451-8654/© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc/4.0/).