Yoga-CaRe: No Reduction in CV Events, Bump in Quality of Life

Yoga-based cardiac rehabilitation following myocardial infarction was not associated with a reduction in cardiovascular events, new study results suggested, but did improve reported quality of life.

Researchers for the Yoga-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation (Yoga-CaRe) study randomized (1:1) 3,959 patients with acute MI to either Yoga-CaRe-based intervention program or to enhanced standard care. Co-primary endpoints of interest included time to occurrence of the first major cardiovascular event (all-cause mortality, nonfatal MI or stroke, and emergency CV hospitalization, and quality of life (measured by Euro-QoL 5D) at 12 weeks.

The results suggested that the clinical outcomes were not different between the study groups. There were numerically fewer outcomes in the Yoga-CaRe group, but they did not reach statistical significance.

“Yoga-CaRe, a yoga based CR, is safe, feasible and significantly improves quality of life and return to pre-infarct daily activities,” Dorairaj Prabhakaran, MD, of the Center for Chronic Disease Control in New Delhi, India, said in a presentation of the results at the American Heart Association 2018 Scientific Sessions in Chicago. He noted that the study was “inadequately powered to detect the planned difference” due to a lower-than-anticipated event rate.

“Per-protocol analysis showed Yoga-CaRe program to be efficacious in improving clinical outcomes suggesting a potential dose-response relationship,” Dr. Prabhakaran said in a concluding slide. “Yoga-CaRe has the potential  to be an alternative to the conventional CR programs and address the unmet needs of cardiac rehabilitation for patients in low- and middle-income countries.”

Discussant Vera Bittner, MD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, highlighted some of the limitations, including the low proportion of women in the study population; the low rate of CV events, limited adherence, no information on adverse events in the yoga population, and no physical intervention activity in the standard care group.

Read more DocWire News coverage of AHA 2018 here.