Ashtanga-Based Yoga Therapy Increases the Sensory Contribution to Postural Stability in Visually-Impaired Persons at Risk for Falls as Measured by the Wii Balance Board: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Persons with visual impairment (VI) are at greater risk for falls due to irreparable damage to visual sensory input contributing to balance. Targeted training may significantly improve postural stability by strengthening the remaining sensory systems. Here, we evaluate the Ashtanga-based Yoga Therapy (AYT) program as a multi-sensory behavioral intervention to develop postural stability in VI.A randomized, waitlist-controlled, single-blind clinical trial) contributions to balance. This study was not powered to detect between group differences, so significance of pre-post changes was assessed by paired samples t-tests within each group. (t(8) = -2.47, p = 0.04) contributions to balance increased significantly. As expected, no significant changes from EO to EC conditions were found indicating an absence of visual dependency in VI. No significant pre-post changes were observed in the control group (all p > 0.05).These preliminary results establish the potential for AYT training to develop the remaining somatosensory and vestibular responses used to optimize postural stability in a VI population