Clinical knowledge, experiences, and perceptions of yoga providers in arthritis treatment: a UK-based qualitative study

This study explored yoga providers' clinical knowledge of arthritis, experiences of delivering yoga to people with arthritis, their perceived role in arthritis treatment, and perceived yoga training needs. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with 20 United Kingdom (UK)-based yoga providers were conducted. The interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed thematically. The analysis generated eight themes. Yoga providers were generally aware of their attendees' health conditions and had clinical knowledge of arthritis through their yoga training. They were reasonably confident in delivering yoga to attendees with arthritis and felt that they had an important role in supporting these attendees. Gentle yoga practices were considered appropriate by the yoga providers, with a perception that a potential interplay between major components of yoga including yogic poses (asana), breathing practices (pranayama), and meditation (dhyana) and relaxation practices could help impart mind-body benefits in arthritis. Creating a safe and supportive environment in yoga sessions, being empathetic towards attendees' needs, and offering tailored modifications were perceived to be important for delivering yoga in arthritis treatment. Major system-level challenges to yoga delivery in arthritis treatment included the inadequate promotion of yoga, the unregulated nature of yoga delivery, and the absence of evidence-based arthritis-specific yoga training. Yoga providers felt they could play a key role in arthritis treatment in the UK, provided yoga is adequately promoted and made accessible to people with arthritis, yoga delivery is regulated, and arthritis-specific yoga training using the best available scientific evidence is made accessible to them.