Patients' Choices for Yoga Therapy: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional, Convenience-Sampling Survey from India

In conventional healthcare, patients' preferences for their treatment are determined, though this practice has not been reported for yoga therapy. The present convenience sampling exploratory survey attempted to determine whether those seeking yoga therapy would report preferences for the way yoga therapy is implemented, the therapist's knowledge, and related aspects of yoga therapy. Responses from 426 people attending a yoga therapy institution in India were analyzed. Based on the chi-square test (p < 0.05) and Cramer's V (> 0.10), most people wished to receive yoga therapy in a group of others with a similar disease (42.25%), in a yoga institution (83.57%), and as in-person sessions (48.83%). Patients preferred yoga therapists to know about the principles of yoga (40.38%), to be well-informed generally (61.97%), and to be able to give suggestions for emotional well-being. For the majority of participants (59.4%), the reason for selecting yoga therapy was "a belief in yoga as therapy" (rather than as an add-on therapy or as a last resort). Patients' expectations of yoga therapy were positive, namely a cure of disease (79.34%) and improvement after 1 year (95.8%). Most patients (91.6%) wanted their conventional medicine practitioner to know that they were receiving yoga therapy. Although limited by the study design, survey design, and participant details available, overall results suggest that patients (1) reported specific preferences (for the implementation of yoga therapy and for yoga therapists' knowledge), (2) had expectations of yoga therapy, and (3) most often were interested in their conventional care physicians being informed about the yoga therapy they received.