Introduction:

Caregivers of children with special needs are usually on a life time journey that maybe both financially and emotionally challenging. They may experience countless number of emotions on diagnosis including denial, loss, grief and anger. It is natural to be worried about the child and his/her future and to feel frustrated and helpless at times. A single parent caregiver will have other challenges in addition to those of a common caregiver. Most often their entire lives revolve around care giving that they forget to live their own life. In some situations the siblings become one of the caregivers, which may affect their education, career and their future. Caregivers may be affected by one or more of the following : depression and anxiety, weak immune system, obesity, higher risk for chronic diseases and problems with short-term memory or paying attention. The frequency of reporting symptoms of stress is more by caregivers than non caregivers. Yoga enhances the union of the body, mind and spirit. It empowers the individual and it helps the individual to connect to their own inner resources. The yoga practices will include jathis, asanas, Pranayama and relaxation. Many studies have shown that practice of yoga as a therapy can act in a somatopsychic way to reduce stress, the intensity of the disorder, increase immunity, strengthen the body and the mind, overall increase the feel good aspect of oneself and an improvement in their quality of life.

Aims and Objectives:

1.Aim: To study the effect of yoga therapy on psychological variables among care givers of  special children.

2. Objectives

a.       To evaluate the effect of yoga therapy on caregivers burden by using an appropriate scale

b.      To measure the quality of life of caregivers of special children

c.       To evaluate the effect of yoga therapy on depression, anxiety and quality of sleep in caregivers.

Subjects and Methods:

The present study will be conducted among caregivers whose children are students of Satya Special School, a school for children with special needs. The participants will be enrolled into the study based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. They will be further divided into control and experimental group using stratified randomisation and by using zelen’s design subject group change will be done. Supervised Yoga sessions will be administered once a week for 6 months for the participants in the experimental group.

The Sample size of 61 per group was arrived at using sample size calculator. Adding dropout rate at 10%, sample size would be 68 for each group, 

i.e, a total sample size of 136.

Work Plan :

• 136 participants will be recruited after obtaining the informed consent form.
• Randomization of the subjects will be done into

          Group A - 68 subjects (Experimental group - Yoga Therapy for 6  months)

          Group B - 68 subjects (Control group - they will be following their usual routine)

• Pre test analysis will be conducted on the psychological parameters using the following scales :

                   Caregiver Burden Scale

                   WHO QOL BREF

                   DASS 21 - Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale

                   Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index

• Yoga therapy according to the protocol will be administered to the participants of the experimental group.
• The duration of a yoga session will be around 45minutes.
• The participants will be motivated to practice by themselves at home and also to maintain a diary that will be used to evaluate compliance.
• A mid test analysis will be done for all the participants after 3 months on all the parameters to assess the effects of yoga therapy.
• Post test analysis will be done at end of 6 months on all the parameters to assess the effects of yoga therapy.
• Data analysis will be done.
• Changes in all parameters will be correlated with compliance to yoga therapy and will be assessed.
• Preparation of final report for publication.
• After the study period, yoga therapy will be offered to the participants of the control group who are interested.