Benefits, barriers and determinants of practicing yoga: A cross sectional study from Kathmandu, Nepal

Association of Perception, Interest, and Barriers of Learning and Practicing Yoga with Levels of Stress in Life among Residents Living in Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND

Yoga as a mind-body activity and clinical studies on yoga's effects on physical and mental health have produced encouraging results. However, there is little research done on the population's perception and interest toward practicing yoga in KSA. Thus, the current study was undertaken to evaluate the perception, interest, and barriers of learning and practicing yoga with levels of stress in life among residents of Saudi Arabia.

METHODOLOGY

This is an observational, cross-sectional study in which people were polled using questionnaires. The study included people of both genders aged 18-70, and Google Forms were distributed through various online platforms. The collected data were statistically analyzed.

RESULTS

The study included 906 subjects in total. Participants were mostly female (64%) and non-Saudi residents (70.9%) between the ages of 31 and 51 years, with moderate levels of stress in life. About 58.6% of the study participants were aware of the benefits of yoga. The Chi-square analysis shows low-stress subjects (67.5%) knew more about yoga and meditation, whereas no-stress subjects (35.7%) practiced yoga. About 14.9% of high-stressed people consulted a yoga therapist. The majority of high (15.3%), medium (12%), and no-stressed (19.6%) did yoga for mental health and focus, whereas the low-stressed (19.3%) did it for physical health. C.

ONCLUSION

Most of the study population knew yoga's physical, psychological, and spiritual benefits. The study found a relationship between the everyday stress levels of Saudi Arabian citizens and their opinions about, interest in, and obstacles to taking up yoga. More experimental and longitudinal studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.

Effect of yoga and mindfulness on psychological correlates in young athletes: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

This meta-analysis planned to assess the impact of yoga and mindfulness practice in reducing stress and anxiety to improve athletes' sports performance.

METHODS

Several databases were electronically searched for eligible articles till September 2022. Participants aged 18-45 yrs, male and female, and recreational athletes from different sports were included. Athletes' stress, competitive anxiety, and sports performance were measured. The mean difference or standardized mean difference with a 95% confidence interval was calculated in RevMan software 5.4. The fixed effect model was applied to test the statistical significance difference and heterogeneity (p < 0.05). The GRADE pro evidence was also created to assess the quality of evidence.

RESULTS

Results were analyzed with pooled data from fifteen articles. Forest plots showed an overall significant effect of yoga and mindfulness on Mindfulness [Z = 4.13 (p < 0.0001)] [(I2 = 48%), MD -2.6, (95% CI, -3.85, -1.37)] and flow state [Z = 9.49 (p < 0.00001)] [(I2 = 85%), SMD 3.13, (95% CI, 2.48, 3.77)]. The insignificant effects were noted on attention and awareness [Z = 1.51 (p = 0.13)] [(I2 = 25%), SMD -0.26, (95% CI, -0.60, 0.80)], and action and acceptance [Z = 0.43 (p = 0.67)] [(I2 = 0%), MD 0.20, (95% CI, -0.69, 1.08)]. We also observed a significant effect for the comparison of stress [Z = 6.56 (p < 0.00001)] [(I2 = 76%), SMD -0.74, (95% CI, -0.97, 0.52)] and an insignificant effect for comparing anxiety [Z = 1.62 (p = 0.11)] [(I2 = 14%), SMD -0.31, (95% CI, -0.69, 0.07)].

CONCLUSION

The findings of this meta-analysis provides valuable insights to the beneficial or complementary effects of yoga and mindfulness on athletes' psychological health and sports performance.

Effects of vibrotactile feedback on yoga practice

Participating in physical exercise using remote platforms is challenging for people with vision impairment due to their lack of vision. Thus, there is a need to provide nonvisual feedback to this population to improve the performance and safety of remote exercise. In this study, the effects of different nonvisual types of feedback (verbal, vibrotactile, and combined verbal and vibrotactile) for movement correction were tested with 22 participants with normal vision to investigate the feasibility of the feedback system and pilot tested with four participants with impaired vision. The study with normal-vision participants found that nonvisual feedback successfully corrected an additional 11.2% of movements compared to the no-feedback condition. Vibrotactile feedback was the most time-efficient among other types of feedback in correcting poses. Participants with normal vision rated multimodal feedback as the most strongly preferred modality. In a pilot test, participants with impaired vision also showed a similar trend. Overall, the study found providing vibrotactile (or multimodal) feedback during physical exercise to be an effective way of improving exercise performance. Implications for future training platform development with vibrotactile or multimodal feedback for people with impaired vision are discussed.