Yoga for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease.

BACKGROUND: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the major cause of early morbidity and mortality in most developed countries. Secondary prevention aims to prevent repeat cardiac events and death in people with established CHD. Lifestyle modifications play an important role in secondary prevention. Yoga has been regarded as a kind of physical activity as well as stress management strategy. Growing evidence suggests the beneficial effects of yoga on various ailments. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effectiveness of yoga for secondary prevention of mortality, morbidity, and health related quality of life of patients with CHD. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) on The Cochrane Library (2012, Issue 1), MEDLINE (1948 to January 2012), EMBASE (1980 to January 2012), ISI Web of Science for conference proceedings (1970 to January 2012), China Journal Net (CJN) (1994 to March 2012), WanFang Data (1990 to March 2012), and HKInChiP (from 1980). Ongoing studies were identified in the metaRegister of Controlled Trials (April 2012) and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (April 2012). No language restrictions were applied. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the influence of yoga practice on CHD outcomes. We included studies that had at least a six months follow-up period. Men and women (aged 18 years and above) with a diagnosis of acute or chronic CHD were included. We included studies with one group practicing a type of yoga compared to the control group receiving either no intervention or interventions other than yoga. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two authors independently selected studies according to the pre-specified inclusion criteria. Disagreements were resolved by consensus or discussion with a third author. MAIN RESULTS: We found no eligible RCTs that met the inclusion criteria of the review and thus we were unable to perform a meta-analysis. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The effectiveness of yoga for secondary prevention in CHD remains uncertain. Large RCTs of high quality are needed.