Specialist Classes

Yogaforbacks.co.uk = an educational social enterprise website, promoting the ‘Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs’ programme proven effective for chronic low back pain by The University of York research.

Background

The University of York, Arthritis Research UK-funded RCT not only found that the ‘Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs’ yoga intervention (12-class ’Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs’ course taught by qualified yoga teachers trained in how to deliver the yoga programme, Relaxations CD, book, home practice sheets) was safe and effective for those with chronic low back pain; it furthermore analysed health economics data and found it would be likely to be cost-effective both within the UK NHS and within society.

This assumed the cost of the yoga intervention, including educational resources, to be £292 per person. During the 12 months studied, those in the yoga group had an average of only 3.83 days off work compared to 12.29 in the non-yoga group (usual care). Sensitivity analyses suggest the same results - that yoga intervention is likely to be cost-effective in both perspectives.