Abstract

BACKGROUND: Aging and age-related health problems are major issues of concern for community health services. Yoga is an exercise with both physiological and psychological effects on aging. Although many studies have assessed the effectiveness of yoga in the elderly, little information is available in the literature to support empirical conclusions.

PURPOSE: This review synthesizes and characterizes findings related to the effects of yoga on depression and quality of sleep in the elderly.

METHODS: Researchers used keywords including yoga, elderly, aged / older adult, depression, sleep, and quality to search 6 electronic databases for relevant studies published prior to March 2013. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to screen identified study abstracts. The Jadad scale appraised the quality of identified studies.

RESULTS: Seven studies met the inclusion criteria. Five studies found significant changes in participant depression symptoms after doing yoga. Three studies found significant effects on the quality of sleep of participants after 6 months of doing yoga.

CONCLUSION: Yoga significantly reduced the depressive symptoms of elderly participants and improved their quality of sleep after 6 months. Findings were similar for elderly living in institutions and in the community. However, the majority of participants in the assessed studies were women characterized by a high level of social participation and proactive participation in health promotion activities. Future studies should broaden the scope of research to address different aging populations and use long-term cohort observations in order to better elicit the effectiveness of yoga and to develop strategies to introduce yoga into daily activities.