Fear of fall is experienced by the elderly irrespective of the presence or absence of history of fall. Falls contribute to injuries that culminate in hospitalisation that incur unwarranted medical expenses. Yoga is unique to Indian cultural practices, with a potential to enhance proprioception. It increases self-body awareness, ultimately improving the balancing capacity of older adults. Thus, the objective of this study is to compare the effect of yoga therapy in the study and control groups at 12 weeks from the baseline.

This study is designed as an open-label, randomised controlled trial (1:1) with a sample size of 62 elderly patients more than or equal to 60 years of age. Participation of either sex, male or female with a fear of fall will be considered. Two randomised groups of 31 participants each will receive standard therapy for their primary diseases as per the local, national or international guidelines. However, participants in the intervention arm will receive additional structured yoga therapy sessions. The primary objective of this study is to assess and compare the change in fear of fall score of participants in each group using Falls Efficacy Scale (FES) and Berg Balance Scale (BBS) at 12 weeks versus baseline. The secondary endpoint will assess the change in the quality of life of participants at 3 months compared with the baseline.

Data will be gathered, entered into Microsoft Excel and further analysed by R software (V.4.3.0). Changes in FES-Intervention and BBS of two groups will be compared either by Student’s t-test for parametric data or Mann-Whitney U test for non-parametric data. Statistical significance will be considered if p

Ethical approval for this study protocol (version 1.0, 22 April 2022) was obtained from the institute ethics committee (AIIMS/IEC/22/195).

CTRI/2022/06/043287.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening condition commonly seen in the intensive care unit. COVID-19 has dramatically increased the incidence of ARDS—with this rise in cases comes the ability to detect predisposing factors perhaps not recognised before, such as metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its associated conditions (hypertension, obesity, dyslipidaemia and type 2 diabetes mellitus). In this systematic review, we seek to describe the complex relationship between MetS, its associated conditions and ARDS (including COVID-19 ARDS).

A systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL and Web of Science will be conducted. The population of interest is adults with ARDS and MetS (as defined according to the study author recognising that MetS definitions vary) or any MetS-associated condition. The control group will be adult patients with ARDS without MetS or any individual MetS-associated condition. We will search studies published in English, with a date restriction from the year 2000 to June 2023 and employ the search phrases ‘metabolic syndrome’, ‘acute respiratory distress syndrome’ and related terms. Search terms including ‘dyslipidaemia’, ‘hypertension’, ‘diabetes mellitus’ and ‘obesity’ will also be utilised. Outcomes of interest will include mortality (in-hospital, ICU, 28-day, 60-day and 90-day), days requiring mechanical ventilation and hospital and/or ICU length of stay. Study bias will be assessed using the NIH Bias Scale.

Ethical approval is not required because this study includes previously published and publicly accessible data. Findings from this review will be disseminated via publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

CRD42023405816.