Social Support and Stress Reduction for Caregivers of Young Adults With IDD (CareWell)

The objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and stress reduction impacts of a yoga and support group intervention on caregivers of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

This is a single arm longitudinal trial. We will recruit up to 40 caregivers of young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). This is a 12-week social support, resources, and stress reduction intervention delivered in person to a group of caregivers of young adults IDD. Participants will be asked to attend one 2 hour group session each week. All sessions will have a 1-hour discussion on resources and social support and 1-hour of yoga. All yoga sessions will be taught by 200 Registered Yoga Teacher certified instructors. Outcome assessments will be collected at baseline and after the 12-week intervention.

This is a single arm trial. This arm includes one hour of a guided social support group and one hour of yoga, weekly for 12 total weeks.

We will calculate recruitment rate by dividing the number of participants who enroll by those who were found eligible on the questionnaire.

The group session leaders will record attendance at weekly sessions. The participants will only be considered present if they complete the entire 2-hour session. The outcome variable will be the number of sessions attended (count) and percentage of attendance out of the total 12 scheduled sessions.

Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with each caregiver to assess satisfaction with the intervention components. Interviews will be recorded and transcribed for analysis.

The Perceived Stress Scale will be administered at baseline and post intervention. Individual scores on the Perceived Stress Scale can range from 0 to 40 with higher scores indicating higher perceived stress.

Cortisol will be used of measure physiologic stress collected at baseline and post intervention, self-collected using saliva swabs. Test kits can detect salivary cortisol in the range between 0.012-3.000 ug/dL.

The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) will be given at baseline and post intervention. This measure scores from 12-84 with the higher score indicating more perceived support.

Modified Caregiver Strain Index will be given to participants at baseline and post intervention. Scoring ranges from 26 to 0; a higher score indicates a higher level of caregiver strain.

The Family Empowerment Scale, only subscales family and service systems will be administered, at baseline and 12 weeks. Each subscale scores from 0-60, with a higher score indicating better family empowerment.

The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index will be administered at baseline and post intervention. Overall scores range from 0 to 21, where lower scores denote a healthier sleep quality.

Inclusion Criteria: 1) caregiver of a young adult with IDD 2) self-reported ability to participate in a yoga class with no contraindications to participation. Exclusion Criteria: 1) Actively participating in another health lifestyles interventional research study.