Effects of Hata Yoga on Knee Osteoarthritis

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this research was to study the effects of 8 weeks of Hata yoga exercises on women with knee osteoarthritis. Studies about effects of Yoga on different chronic diseases show that these exercises have positive effects on chronic diseases. As knee osteoarthritis is very common among middle age women we decided to measure effectiveness of these exercises on knee osteoarthritis. METHODS: Sample included 30 women with knee osteoarthritis who voluntarily participated in this semi-experimental study and were divided into a control group (15) and a yoga group (15). The yoga group received 60 minutes sessions of Hata yoga, 3 times a week and for 8 weeks. Pain, symptoms, daily activities, sports and spare-time activities, and quality of life were respectively measured by Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Scale (KOOS) questionnaire. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) method for repetitive data was used to analyze the results (P = 0.05). RESULTS: Findings showed that pain and symptoms were significantly decreased and scores of daily activities, sports, spare-time activities, and quality of life were significantly increased in the yoga group. CONCLUSIONS: It seems that yoga can be used as a conservative treatment besides usual treatments and medications to improve the condition of people with osteoarthritis.