Abstract
Work-related stress represents a relevant public health issue and solution strategies are mandatory. Yoga is a common approach to manage stress and its effectiveness has been extensively confirmed. Therefore, this study aims systematically to review the effectiveness of Yoga interventions carried out at workplace on work-related stress among employees and to assess their impact quantitatively. Springerlink, MEDLINE, PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane CENTRAL and PEDro databases were searched. Clinical trials comparing workplace Yoga interventions to control groups, and evaluating perceived stress as outcome measure, were assessed for eligibility. All forms and styles of Yoga were considered for the analysis. Out of 3392 initially identified, 6 studies were included in the meta-analysis; 266 participants practicing Yoga interventions at worksite were compared to 221 subjects in control group. Included studies showed “some concerns” about different domains of source of bias. Quantitative analysis showed an overall effect size of −0.67 [95% confidence interval (CI): −0.86, −0.49] in favor of Yoga intervention in reducing stress outcome measures. Hence, workplace Yoga interventions were more effective when compared to no treatment in work-related stress management. Further high-quality studies are needed to improve the validity of these results and to specify more characteristics of the Yoga intervention, such as style, volume, and frequency.
Highlights
Work-related stress can be defined as an emotional consequence occurring when the workplace demand exceeds the worker’s ability to cope with it, causing potential detrimental physical effects [1]
Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, 76 studies exploring the effect of Yoga interventions carried out at workplaces on the reduction of stress were considered for a detailed evaluation, and their full texts were retrieved
70 were excluded for the following reasons: 40 were not randomized or non-randomized controlled trials; 14 did not conduct Yoga as an intervention but other programs that were not completely specified; 9 studies used Yoga in addition to other interventions in the treatment group; 4 studies did not assess stress as an outcome directly; 2 studies were conducted in settings different from workplaces; and 1 study did not report sufficient quantitative data to be included in qualitative synthesis and quantitative analysis
Summary
Work-related stress can be defined as an emotional consequence occurring when the workplace demand exceeds the worker’s ability to cope with it, causing potential detrimental physical effects [1]. It has a relevant role in the onset of cardiovascular [2], musculoskeletal [3] and mental health disorders [4], as previously demonstrated in literature. A total of 12.8 million working days are lost due to work-related stress, depression, or anxiety, with a mean value of 21.2 days lost per case [5] These data highlight a huge economic impact associated to this condition, beyond health aspects
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