Yoga for falls prevention: impressions of people aged 60 years and over

ABSTRACT

BackgroundYoga may reduce fall risk in older age. The Successful AGEing (SAGE) yoga trial investigates the effect of yoga on falls among community-dweller people aged 60+. We conducted a process evaluation to gauge participants’ impressions of the supervised 40-week yoga program delivered face-to-face and/or online (due to COVID-19).MethodsParticipants completed a survey assessing a) perceived program benefit for physical health, wellbeing, and balance/risk of falls, b) satisfaction with program features;c) physical ability to participate in the program. They self-rated these aspects using a 0 to 10 scale, where higher scores indicated more benefit, greater satisfaction/ability. We also measured the proportion of participants who would recommend the program and continue participation in yoga.ResultsWe included 179 participants (mean age of 68 (SD 5);80% female). The mean rating of program benefit was 9/10 (SD 1.8) for physical health and 8/10 (SD 2.0) for wellbeing and balance/risk of fall. Overall, participants expressed greater satisfaction associated with program content (mean 9/10 [SD 1.4]) and yoga instructors (9/10 [SD 1.2]). Participants viewed the yoga program as enjoyable but challenging and reported that yoga instructors were supportive, professional and tailored poses to individual needs. Participants rated their physical ability to participate in the program as excellent (9/10 [SD 1.7]). The majority (n=157, 94%) would recommend the program and intended to continue practising yoga after trial completion (n=100;58%).ConclusionOverall, the SAGE yoga was well-received, perceived to benefit health, wellbeing and balance/falls risk and would be recommended to others.