The Effect of Yoga on Care Load, Quality of Life, and Psychological Well-Being of Indivıduals With Special Needs

Caregivers mostly consist of parents and even mothers. As primary caregivers in the care of a healthy newborn, mothers experience many physical, emotional and mental problems. Every parent makes plans for their child to be born, their social environment and their own expectations for their children are formed, and therefore, giving birth to a disabled child means that all these planning and expectations are subject to change. Problems related to financial situation, exclusion from social environment, psychological state, sense of burnout and educational status are among the other problems experienced by caregivers. It has been determined that there are many problems that caregivers experience psychologically, and it is necessary to support caregivers by conducting various interventional studies for these problems. As a result of the researches carried out in the caregivers of the disabled individuals, the existence of negative psychological conditions such as low quality of life, depression and anxiety has been determined and it has been seen that interventional studies are needed in this regard. It has been concluded that yoga has positive effects on other caregivers regarding the problems experienced by caregivers of disabled individuals. This study was planned in accordance with the randomized controlled research design. It will be held between November 2021 and April 2022 with the caregivers of the students registered in the Guidance and Research Centers in Gebze and Darıca Districts of Kocaeli Province. All caregivers between the ages of 18-65 of the students enrolled in the Guidance and Research Centers in Gebze and Darıca Districts in Kocaeli constitute the universe of the research. Using the G Power 3.1.9.4 program, the sample size calculated with a confidence interval of 0.05 and a power of 90% and a large effect size was calculated to be 16 for each group and a total of 32 caregiver studies. It is planned to reach 40 caregivers from each group and 80 caregivers in total, considering the parametric test assumptions and 10% sample loss. Randomization: After filling the pre-test questionnaires with the caregivers who agreed to participate in the research, it will be done by using the SPSS (24.0) statistical package program in the computer environment, taking into account the care burden, quality of life and psychological well-being scale scores. Inclusion Criteria; -Being between the ages of 18- 65, -Caring for a person with special needs for 6 months or more, -Having no physical dysfunction that would prevent doing yoga (COPD, septum deviation, etc.) -Having never done yoga before, -Refused to participate in the study -Speaking Turkish, -The caregiver has internet access, -The caregiver has a computer/tablet with a camera Exclusion criteria; - Having cognitive and musculoskeletal system, neuromuscular and chronic systemic diseases that prevent doing yoga, - Having had a surgical operation in the last 1 month, - Not being willing to participate in the study. Socio-demographic data and web-based yoga initiative were defined as independent variables. Scale total scores and sub-dimension total scores were defined as dependent variables. Socio-demographic Data Collection Form, Caregiver Burden Scale, Multidimensional Quality of Life Scale and Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale will be applied to caregivers in the intervention and control groups included in the study. Informed consent will be obtained from caregivers participating in the study.

The yoga initiative to be applied to the intervention group; Yoga, which is mind-breath-body work; It includes meditation, pranayama (breath work), and asanas (yoga poses). The yoga practice will be applied by the researcher who has a RYT-200 Yoga Alliance yoga instructor certificate over the Zoom application in order to minimize the risk of infection, considering the COVID-19 pandemic period.

The content of the yoga practice consists of the following poses:

-Tadasana (Mountain pose), -Urdhvahastasana, -Uttanasana, -Ardha Uttanasana, -Plank, -Ashtang Pranam, -Bhujangasana (Mini cobra), -Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward facing dog), -Vrksasana (Tree Pose), - Utthita Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), -Virabhadrasana I (Warrior I), -Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II), -Virabhadrasana I with Anjali Mudra (Hands Reverse Namaste), -Utkatasana (Chair Pose), -Salabhasana, -Paschimottanasana , -Dandasana, -Salamba Sarvangasana (Shoulder pose), -Ardha Urdhva Dhanurasana (Half Wheel Pose), -Reverse Warrior, -Child's pose, -Ananda Balasana (Happy baby), -Wipers, -Corpse Pose Evaluation of Data: While evaluating the data of the research, descriptive statistics (mean, std. deviation, median, etc.) for numerical variables and frequency distributions for categorical variables will be given. In the study, Kolmogorov Smirnov or Shapiro-Wilk normal distribution test will be used to examine the conformity of the variables to the normal distribution. Demographic data, total scores obtained from the scales in the experimental and control groups will be compared with the chi-square and t test. The difference between the experimental and control groups will be evaluated with an independent two-group t-test. The significance level will be accepted as 0.05. The power and effect size of the study will be calculated by regression analysis