Non-participation Rate and Recruitment Barriers in Offering Yoga Intervention for Depression: A Scoping Review

Depression is a common mental health condition that globally affects legions of people, though interventions such as yoga have emerged as a complementary treatment for treating it. Despite its potential therapeutic benefits, recruitment and retention in yoga-based interventions still remain a challenge, resulting in limiting their use in clinical settings.

This scoping review aimed to identify and categorise the barriers contributing to non-participation and recruitment challenges in implementing yoga-based interventions for depression. Major databases such as PubMed, Embase, and Scopus were used for identifying the studies reporting on recruitment challenges in yoga interventions for depression.

(a) in which yoga served as the primary intervention, that measure any health outcomes, (b) which studied adults aged ≥18 years with mild/moderate depressive condition, and (c) RCT studies published in English were included. Of the 445 studies screened, only five met the eligibility criteria. Across studies, the yoga intervention varied in type, duration, method of delivery, and several key barriers like stigma about mental health, limited awareness of therapeutic benefits of yoga, cultural perceptions, and physical limitations that hindered the rate of participation were identified.

Addressing the recruitment barriers is essential to enhance the utilisation of complementary treatments like yoga for treating depression. Strategies like culturally sensitive community outreach with a flexible mode of delivery are required, and awareness of alternate treatment approaches like yoga with its potential benefits should be created to improve the participation rate. The review provides a foundation for designing inclusive and easily accessible yoga-based mental health programmes for treating depression and related conditions.