Individualized yoga for inpatient children undergoing intensive chemotherapy feasible

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

As in adult patients with cancer, fatigue is an important problem for pediatric patients with cancer. Yoga may be an equally effective intervention for these patients.

Researchers from the Hospital for Sick Children, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine the feasibility of individualized yoga for hospitalized children receiving intensive chemotherapy. Feasibility was defined as the ability to deliver at least 60% of the planned three times weekly yoga sessions for at least 70% of the participants.

The trial included 11 patients, ages 7 to 18 years, who had acute myeloid lymphoma (AML) or were undergoing haematopoetic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The primary objective was to determine feasibility of yoga intervention in this patient population; secondary objectives included fatigue and quality of life (QoL) for the child via parent/guardian proxy-report, self-report parent QoL, and self-report child assessment.

The researchers found 10 of the patients were able to participate in the yoga sessions. Qualitative feedback from both the children and their parents indicated physical and psychological benefits were achieved.

The researchers concluded that individualized yoga is feasible for children receiving intensive chemotherapy. They also found measuring its benefits on fatigue and QoL is feasible provided parents are the primary respondents.