A randomized controlled trial to see effect of community-basedYoga Program on diabetes, blood pressure, lipid profile and wellness in Rural and Tribal Community Setting, and its feasibility to integrate with Health and Wellness centres (HWC) in the country

Background: In view of the rising burden of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) cases in India, there is an urgent need for an effective, low‐cost, sustainable intervention to control diabetes thus preventing complications. We plan to study the role of yoga in rural and tribal community settings among diabetics to see the impact of yoga in real-life community-based settings rather than facility-based experimental settings with integration to Health and Wellness Centres (HWC).

Yoga has been seen to be beneficial not only in preventing these diseases but also in treatment of many of these.  However, most of studies have been done in a facility based setting, and once person go out of it, many of them discontinue it.

Novelty: This study looks at the effect of yoga done in a community setting at doorstep along with looking feasibility of yoga in field setting.  We have successfully demonstrated in urban community.  To replicate it for masses, we need to demonstrate benefits in rural and tribal communities too, along with exploring challenges and its solutions for field-based yoga implementation in these communities. More importantly we are looking to integrate it with Health and wellness centres (HWCs) under Ayushman Bharat for long term sustainability for huge rural and tribal population of the country even in remotest areas so as to make it successful for this underprivileged group while controlling NCDs such as Diabetes Mellitus. In essence, by integrating various discrete stages of usual research design, we provide a superior methodology in making yoga a “Jan-Andolan”. Furthermore, to our knowledge, no community-based study has been conducted in rural and tribal area on effect of structured yoga program on diabetes, hypertension and wellness.