Chair Yoga More Effective Than Music Therapy in Older Adults With Advanced Dementia

A pilot study published in the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias detailed the first cluster, randomized controlled trial of the effects of chair yoga on older adults with moderate to severe dementia who cannot participate in regular exercise or standing yoga, reports ScienceDaily . Participants in three groups attended 45-minute sessions of chair yoga, chair-based exercise, or music therapy twice weekly for 12 weeks. According to the researchers, over 97 percent of participants fully engaged in each session. The chair yoga group's quality of life improved significantly compared to the music intervention group. Both the chair yoga and chair-exercise cohorts improved over time, while the music intervention group experienced a decline. Moreover, both the chair yoga and chair-based exercise groups exhibited lower depression across three time points in comparison with the music intervention group. "We think that the physical poses we used in the chair yoga and chair-based exercise groups were an important factor in improving quality of life for the participants in our study," said Florida Atlantic University Professor Juyoung Park. No significant between-group differences in anxiety was observed at any time point, or differences in change in depression and anxiety.