NEW DELHI: Yoga practitioners experienced lower stress, anxiety and depression, higher well being and a higher peace of mind during 4-10 weeks of lockdown last year as compared to the non-practitioners, according to a recent study by the researchers of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.
The study titled 'Yoga an effective strategy for self-management of stress-related problems and well being during COVID-19 lockdown: A cross-sectional study' was recently published in a highly reputed journal PLOS ONE.
The study was carried out on a total of 668 adults during the lockdown, between April 26 and June 8, 2020. The participants were grouped as; yoga practitioners, other spiritual practitioners, and non-practitioners based on their responses to daily practices that they follow.
The researchers also examined the yoga practitioners based on the duration of practice such as long-term, mid-term and beginners. The long-term practitioners reported higher personal control and lower illness concern in contracting COVID-19 than the mid-term or beginner group.
The long-term and mid-term practitioners also reported perceiving lower emotional impact of the coronavirus than the beginners, shows the study. "While yoga has been recommended as one of the ways to manage stress during COVID-19, there was lack of empirical evidence to support the claims. Our study has mapped the effect of yoga on the cognitive and emotional problems of the pandemic, besides showing beneficial effects of yoga on general wellbeing during adversity," said Dr Pooja Sahni, who led the research team.