# Promoting engagement, assessing barriers, and evaluating self-efficacy in yoga research among women from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2021 · $215,068

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Yoga is a complementary mind-body practice used to prevent and manage a growing array of health conditions
that affect women. However, yoga continues to be underutilized by women from racial and ethnic minority
groups despite their need for effective and safe complementary behavioral health interventions. Minority
women are also dramatically underrepresented in clinical research involving yoga, thus limiting insight into
strategies for overcoming challenges to yoga instruction for women from these backgrounds. This
administrative supplement is designed to promote engagement, assess barriers, and evaluate self-efficacy
among under-represented racial and ethnic minority women participating in a randomized controlled trial of a
group-based yoga intervention for women with urinary incontinence that has involved both in-person and
videoconference-based waves of yoga instruction. We will use supplemental funds to enhance recruitment of
underrepresented minority women through targeted outreach to communities in the northern California area
with a higher density of Latina and African-American residents. For upcoming study waves involving
videoconference-based yoga instruction, we will loan equipment, provide coaching, and enhance
videoconference support to minority women with limited prior experience with digital technology. We will also
conduct new analyses to explore whether participant expectations, engagement, and self-efficacy in practicing
yoga differ by race/ethnicity, educational attainment, physical function status, and prior experience with digital
technology, using structured measures incorporated into the parent clinical trial. We will also conduct in-depth
qualitative interviews with a subset of trial participants sampled across multiple racial/ethnic backgrounds to
explore barriers and facilitators of their experience of learning and practicing yoga. Finally, we will triangulate
findings from qualitative and quantitative data to explore potential mediators of differences in engagement,
adherence, and self-efficacy in yoga practice among women from diverse backgrounds. This research will
provide new insight into factors influencing engagement of underrepresented racial/ethnic minority women in
research on yoga and help guide future strategies to develop, refine, and implement complementary mind-
body interventions for women of diverse backgrounds.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10331675
- **Project number:** 3R01DK116712-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Alison Huang
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $215,068
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2018-09-20 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10331675

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10331675, Promoting engagement, assessing barriers, and evaluating self-efficacy in yoga research among women from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds (3R01DK116712-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-01 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10331675. Licensed CC0.

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