The Effect of Yoga and Peer Support Interventions on the Quality of Life of Women with Diabetes: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVE: This was an interventional study to understand the effect of two low-cost interventions; yoga and peer support on the quality of life (QOL) of women with type 2 diabetes. METHODOLOGY: An open label parallel three-armed randomized control trial was conducted among 124 recruited women with diabetes for 3 months. Block randomization with a block length of six was carried out. In the yoga arm, sessions by an instructor, consisting of a group of postures coordinated with breathing were conducted for an hour, 2 days a week. In the peer support arm, each peer mentor after training visited 13–14 women with diabetes every week followed by a phone call. The meeting was about applying disease management plans in daily life. At the beginning and end of the study, QOL was assessed by the translated, validated World Health Organization QOL-BREF in four domains physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains. RESULTS: The majority (96%) of the study participants perceived the peer support and yoga intervention to be beneficial. Paired t-test revealed significant increases in the social and environmental domain in the peer group and in the environmental domain in the yoga group, though this disappeared in the between-group comparison perhaps due to poor glycemic control (hemoglobin A1c varied from 9.4 to 9.6) and the short duration of 3 months of the study. CONCLUSION: Peer support and yoga improved perceptions of QOL though its impact on scores was not significant due to a short period of study among women with poor glycemic control.