Exercise is recognized as beneficial in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but comparative evidence on different exercise modalities for patients who are in clinical remission is limited. This single-blind randomized controlled trial evaluated whether an 8-week yoga programme or an 8-week combined exercise programme produced different short- and longer-term effects on pain, balance, mobility, fatigue, depression, and quality of life in females with RA who were in clinical remission.
Seventy-four female participants with RA in clinical remission were randomized into three groups: yoga (n = 25), combined exercise (n = 25), and a usual care control group (n = 24). The two intervention arms received supervised programmes for 8 weeks. The trial was conducted as single-blind; the abstract reports randomization and follow-up visits at 8 and 20 weeks.
Assessments were performed at baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and at a 20-week follow-up. The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT07072754) and the full report is available via PubMed Central (PMCID: PMC13522644). The DOI is 10.1002/msc.70261. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Primary and secondary outcomes reported in the abstract included:
These measures were recorded at baseline, after the 8-week supervised intervention, and at the 20-week follow-up to evaluate persistence of effects.
Both active intervention groups (yoga and combined exercise) showed statistically significant improvements across all reported outcome measures compared with the usual care control group at post-treatment (8 weeks) and at the 20-week follow-up (p < 0.05). Improvements encompassed pain, balance, mobility, fatigue, depressive symptoms, and health-related quality of life. The abstract does not provide absolute or mean scores for every measure in full detail; those seeking numerical values for specific scales should consult the full-text article.
At the 20-week follow-up the yoga group demonstrated superior outcomes relative to the combined exercise group. Key reported differences included:
The trial authors conclude that both an 8-week yoga programme and an 8-week combined exercise programme are effective for managing residual symptoms in women with RA who are in clinical remission. However, yoga appears to produce greater benefits in pain management and psychosocial domains (fatigue and depression), supporting its role as an adjunct in multidisciplinary RA management—particularly to address psychosocial burden even after disease activity is controlled.
The abstract suggests that the additional elements of yoga (breathing and relaxation) may contribute to these psychosocial and pain-related improvements, though mechanistic data are not provided in the abstract.
This randomized controlled trial was retrospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT07072754). The authors report no conflicts of interest. The full text, including figures and the CONSORT-style flow chart, is available via PMC (PMCID: PMC13522644) for readers who require detailed methods, intervention protocols, adherence data, statistical tables, and adverse event reporting.
Note on missing details from the abstract
The abstract does not report several implementation details that clinicians and programme planners may need, such as the precise content and progression of the combined exercise programme, session frequency and duration, participant adherence and retention rates by group, and adverse event counts. For those items, and for full numerical outcome tables and between-group effect sizes for all measures, consult the full article available on PubMed Central.