Educating Primary Care Providers on the Evidence Supporting Use of Yoga in Treating Anxiety, Depression and Lower Back Pain

Purpose. Utilizing lessons taken from the Iowa Model revised, the purpose of this evidence-based practice project is to educate primary care providers (PCPs) on the beneficial effects of yoga therapy on anxiety, depression, and chronic lower back pain.
Background. Anxiety, depression, and chronic lower back pain contribute to significant morbidity in the United States, with an economic cost estimated at over $665 million per year. Current medical modalities have proven only marginally effective in combating the lasting effects of these conditions. Complementary therapies such as yoga have been proven highly effective in decreasing anxiety, depression, and pain.
Methods. Participants were Family and Internal Medicine Primary Care Providers at a local University hospital and a local community hospital. The investigator recruited participants through department managers and 29 News community calendar.
Pre- and Post-module questionnaires via Qualtrics to gather demographics and attitudes on alternative therapies and the effectiveness of this educational module on recommending yoga as a treatment modality. Qualtrics, Microsoft Word & Excel were used to perform all data analysis.
Results. The project was implemented via an online platform over a 4-week timeframe. A new educational online module was emailed to each participant once each week. Upon completion of the project, participants showed a statistically significant increase in willingness to prescribe yoga therapy for anxiety, depression, and low back pain.
Conclusion. Evidence-based information may help influence PCPs to recommend yoga therapy for the treatment of certain medical and mental health conditions. Future studies will need to be done to demonstrate the validity of this online yoga modality.
Keywords: evidence-based practice, yoga, anxiety, depression, low back pain