Session Information
Date: Saturday, November 16, 2019
Session Title: Section Info: Annual Assembly Posters (Non Presentations)
Session Time: 11:15am-12:45pm
Location: Research Hub - Kiosk 8
Disclosures: Sarah Smith, MBBS: Nothing to disclose
Objective: Approximately 36.7 million Americans practiced yoga in 2016. The rise in popularity of yoga has also triggered more discussion within the medical community of its use as a therapeutic tool. As specialists in rehabilitation, physiatrists in particular will benefit from being up to date on the research of yoga as an adjunctive therapy, in order to best educate their patients on this topic. In this study, we looked at the inclusion of yoga content in five leading PM&R journals.
Design: Five leading PM&R journals were searched for yoga content (original research, case reports/series, and reviews) from 2009-2018. The search was limited to studies that focused on the use of yoga as a therapeutic tool. Two independent methods were utilized: (1) a keywords search within the journal’s website; and (2) a review of table of contents for that journal (Figure 1).
Setting: n/a
Participants: n/a
Interventions: n/a
Main Outcome Measures: n/a
Results: Only 24 publications were identified over the 10-year study period. The number of studies per journal are as follows: American Journal PM&R (5); PM&R (4); Archives of PM&R (8); European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (2); and Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine (6). The most common topics included the effectiveness of yoga in treating lower back or neck pain, and the effectiveness of yoga in decreasing falls. Analysis by year demonstrated that the number of reports has been variable, but highest in 2018 (n=5) and 2013 (n=5). The overall trend, however, demonstrates a 60% growth over the last 5 years.
Conclusions: There are many proposed benefits of yoga as a rehabilitative tool. Though the research on the topic of yoga within the rehabilitation community is promising, it is scarce. Given the growing popularity of yoga among the public, it is important to have more evidence to support or discourage its use when educating patients about adjunctive therapies.
Level of Evidence: Level IV
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Smith S, Weider K, Tisma EA, Venida RM. Research on Yoga as a Therapeutic Tool in Leading Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) Journals over the past Decade Is Scarce [abstract]. PM R. 2019; 11(S2)(suppl 2). https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/research-on-yoga-as-a-therapeutic-tool-in-leading-physical-medicine-rehabilitation-pmr-journals-over-the-past-decade-is-scarce/. Accessed May 12, 2025.« Back to AAPM&R Annual Assembly 2019
PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/research-on-yoga-as-a-therapeutic-tool-in-leading-physical-medicine-rehabilitation-pmr-journals-over-the-past-decade-is-scarce/