THE PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF YOGA THERAPY ON BURNOUT AMONG MEDICAL STAFF: A SINGLE-ARM PRE-POST INTERVENTION
Authors: Kamiyama Saki , Ikai-Tani *Saeko , So Mirai , Uchida Hiroyuki 
Published: February 2025

Background

Burnout, encompassing emotional exhaustion, disrupts the balance between the mind and body, emphasizing the need for concise and practical interventions to mitigate risk in medical settings. Yoga therapy has been shown to alleviate anxiety and depression in both healthy adults and patients with severe mental illnesses. However, there is a paucity of research investigating the effects of short- term yoga therapy on burnout among medical staff.

Aims & Objectives

This study aims to evaluate the effect of a two-week yoga therapy on burnout among medical staff.

Methods

We conducted a two-week single-arm pre-post intervention study involving medical and co- medical staff working at the general hospital of Tokyo Dental College, Chiba, Japan. This study protocol received approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the general hospital of Tokyo Dental College (UMIN:000044465). The intervention comprised in-person and online yoga sessions held twice weekly for four sessions, each lasting 60 minutes. The primary outcome measures included the number of participants, completion rate, and the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire 8 (CSQ-8). The secondary outcomes encompassed the assessment of burnout levels using the Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey (MBI-GS), blood pressure, heart rate variability, alpha-amylase activities, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the General Anxiety Disorders-7 (GAD-7), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the EuroQol-5 dimensions classification system (EQ-5D), the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS), and the Resilience Scale (RS). These assessments were conducted at registration, the end of the first session, the end of the fourth session, and one-week and four-week follow-up. This study is currently ongoing and aims to recruit fifty participants. A preliminary statistical analysis was performed using R, employing analysis of covariance and repeated-measures analysis of variance.

Results

Preliminary analysis results were reported herein. Between July 2021 and the present, 21 participants (mean age: 42.2±9.5 years old, 9.5% male) were enrolled in this intervention, with 19 participants (90.4%) completing all sessions. The mean CSQ-8 was 27.7±3.7. Although the total score of MBI-GS did not show significant improvement, the score of GAD-7 decreased from 5.2±3.2 to 2.8±2.8 (p&lt;0.05), the score of PHQ-9 decreased from 6.7±4.0 to 3.2±4.0 (p&lt;0.05), and EQ-5D increased from 67.1±15.5 to 75.2±16.4 (p&lt;0.05). These improvements were sustained at the 4-week follow-up assessments. However, other measurements did not show significant improvement during the short-term period.

Discussion & Conclusion

This pre-post study, based on a preliminary analysis of 21 participants, highlights the positive effects of a 2-week Hatha yoga intervention on anxiety, depression, and quality of life (QoL) among medical staff in a general hospital. Our findings demonstrate the potential clinical utility of hybrid yoga sessions in mitigating the risk of burnout among medical staff. However, the transient nature of the observed clinical gains underscores the need for further investigations into potential strategies for enhancing these acute effects. This pre-post study has limitations, including a small sample size (n=21) and a shorter session module. Future investigations exploring the optimal intervention are necessary to achieve sustained therapeutic effects of hybrid yoga intervention on burnout.