Feasibility of a Yoga- and Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Resident Physicians

Not Applicable

Completed

Conditions: Anxiety
Burnout, Professional
Depression
Stress

Interventions: Behavioral: RISE yoga-based program

Registration Number: NCT03687450

Lead Sponsor: Brigham and Women's Hospital

Brief Summary: The investigators aim to initiate and complete the first investigation of the effect of a yoga-based program on resident physicians' psychological health using a randomized controlled trial to assess feasibility of the program in this population and measure outcomes across several domains. To meet the goals of the proposed project the investigators have identified 3 specific aims:

Specific Aim 1: Assess the acceptability and feasibility of the yoga program through measuring participation and conducting standardized interviews with a subset of yoga participants.

Specific Aim 2: Evaluate the effect of the yoga program on resident physicians' stress, burnout, resilience, mindfulness, mood, depression, anxiety, and sleep quality using quantitative self-report measures.

Specific Aim 3. Examine whether outcome measures were perceived as relevant to the participants' work environment and were not burdensome as to the length and content of the program.

Detailed Description: The project will implement a single group mixed-methods randomized controlled trial to investigate the impact of the 6-week RISE program on psychological health in Longwood medical area residents. The RISE program is an existing standardized yoga program at Kripalu that will be adapted for residents in a 60-90-minute, once-weekly class for six weeks. Participants will be randomized to either the RISE yoga program or a no-treatment control group. Participants randomized to the RISE program will also be instructed to maintain a short 10-15-minute daily home yoga practice. Sessions will be lead by experienced instructors from Kripalu and will be held in the Longwood medical area. Self-report outcomes will be assessed at baseline, at program completion (post-program), at 2-month follow-up, and at 6-month follow-up.

Participants will include resident physicians at Longwood medical area hospitals. The only exclusion criterion is having practiced yoga, meditation, tai chi, qigong, or another mind-body practice at least 25 hours or more in the past 6 months. Participants must be willing not to practice mind-body programs other than the treatment protocol during the intervention. We plan to enroll up to 200 participants with a goal of at least 60 participants with a 2:1 ratio of participants randomized to yoga to participants randomized to control. The control group will receive one session of RISE after their participation in the trial is complete.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 56

Inclusion Criteria

Individuals enrolled in residency programs at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess, Boston Children's Hospital, or a Harvard Combined Residency Program
Individuals must be willing to not practice mind-body programs other than the intervention during the treatment protocol
Must be proficient in English

Exclusion Criteria

Individuals who currently practice yoga, meditation, tai chi, qigong, and other mind-body practices more than 25 hours in the past 6 months

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Intervention (Yoga) Arm	RISE yoga-based program	Received a weekly 60-minute yoga-based class over 6 weeks with direction for a 5-10 minute daily home practice.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Feasibility of Attending the Yoga Program	Post-program	Participants were ask to rate the feasibility of attending the yoga program on a visual analogue scale from 0 (not at all feasible) to 100 (very feasible). Only the intervention group rated feasibility since the control group was a waitlist control group and did not attend the program. The standard deviation of the mean score was calculated.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Differences in Professional Fulfillment - Burnout Sub-Item	Baseline, post-program, and 2-month follow-up	Professional Fulfillment Index (PFI; 16 items) - scores from 0-4 for the burnout scale; higher is more burnout
Difference in Burnout	Post-program and 2-month follow-up	Maslach Burnout Inventory (short form, 2 items) - scores from 0-12; higher is more burnout
Difference in Professional Fulfillment	Baseline, post-program, and 2-month follow-up	Professional Fulfillment Index (PFI; 16 items) - scores from 0-4 for professional fulfillment scale; higher is more fulfillment
Difference in Resilience	Baseline, post-program, and 2-month follow-up	Resilience Scale (RS-14; 14 items) - scores from 14-98; higher more resilience
Difference in Mindfulness	Baseline, post-program, and 2-month follow-up	Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ; short form, 15 items) - scores from 15-75; higher score means more mindfulness
Difference in Stress	Baseline, post-program, and 2-month follow-up	Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; 10 items) - scores from 0-40; higher is more stress
Difference in Resident Well-being	Baseline, post-program, and 2-month follow-up	Resident Well-Being Index (7 items) - scores from 0-7; higher is worse wellbeing
Difference in Depression	Baseline, post-program, and 2-month follow-up	Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Depression (short form: depression-4) - scores from 4-20, higher is more depression
Difference in Sleep Quality	Baseline, post-program, and 2-month follow-up	PROMIS Sleep Disturbance (short form, 4 items) - scores from 4-20, higher is more sleep disturbance
Difference in Anxiety	Baseline, post-program, and 2-month follow-up	Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Anxiety (short form: anxiety-4) - scores from 4-20, higher is more anxiety