Yoga as a therapy for adolescents and young adults with cystic fibrosis: a pilot study
Open accessAbstract
RATIONALE: Yoga has been shown to improve outcomes in patients with asthma but has not been investigated in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. METHODS: This was a prospective pilot study to evaluate the safety of a standardized yoga program among CF patients aged 12 to 25 years. Participants engaged in a 50-minute yoga session twice weekly for 8 weeks conducted by a certified yoga instructor using a standardized program designed to be safe for health-compromised individuals. Yoga sessions were individual to avoid transmission of infections. Primary outcome was safety and tolerability. Secondary outcome measures included respiratory symptoms, the Cystic Fibrosis Quality of Life instrument (CFQ-R), lung function, Ease of Breathing Score (measure of exercise tolerance), and weight. RESULTS: Eleven participants were enrolled, and 10 completed the study. Adherence was very good; the mean (SD) number of sessions completed was 14.2 (1.3) out of 16 sessions. Eight patients reported 25 adverse events. The most common was cough, reported in 7. Two events were possibly related to study procedures: calf pain and headache. There were no significant changes in dyspnea or pain scales. The mean (SD) CFQ-R respiratory domain score increased from screening to end of study: 67.9 (11.4) to 82.1 (9.9), P=.04. There were no significant changes in the other outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS: In this pilot study, a standardized 8-week yoga program was safe and well tolerated among adolescent and young adult CF patients with mild to moderate lung disease. This study may be helpful to yoga instructors who are interested in working with CF patients. Larger controlled trials are warranted to determine further benefits.
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The Ruddy 2015 RCT did not evaluate adherence to inhaled therapies.
“Contacted first author who confirmed that adherence to inhaled therapies was not evaluated in the study.”
From Psychological interventions for improving adherence to inhaled therapies in people with cystic fibrosis (2023) · cites this paper as Ruddy 2015
The Methods section lists the study outcomes without adherence to inhaled therapies, while the Results section reports adherence only as the number of yoga sessions completed. However, Methods describes a prospective pilot study, not an RCT. The paper also cannot verify the citing authors’ account of contacting its first author. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Ruddy, J., Emerson, J., Mcnamara, S., Genatossio, A., Breuner, C., Weber, T., & Rosenfeld, M.
- Affiliations
- ProMedica Russell J. Ebeid Children's Hospital (US)
- Seattle Children's Hospital (US)
- Whole Life Yoga, Seattle, Washington, United States
- Corresponding author
- Ruddy, Jennifer
- Venue
- Global Advances in Health and Medicine
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2015-11
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 32-36
- ISSN
- 2164-9561 (ISSN-L)
- 2164-957X
- PMC
- PMC4653591
- OpenAlex
- W2152759140
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 0.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Global Advances in Health and Medicine (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (UL1TR000423, UL1TR002319)
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (P30DK089507)
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Cystic Fibrosis Research Advances
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Keywords
- yoga, cystic fibrosis, adolescents, young adults, exercise therapy, safety and tolerability, respiratory symptoms, quality of life, lung function, exercise tolerance, weight
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