Effect of yoga on stress in women

Background: Women are very anxious and constantly under stress to carry out responsibilities at home as well as at workplace. Yoga is considered to be one of the most important, effective and valuable tool available to overcome various psychological problems. Aims: The study was aimed to find out the effect of yoga training on stress seen in women. Material & Methods: The study was conducted at Yoga Institute of the Gujarat Ayurved University, Jamnagar after prior approval from Ethical Committee. Total 50 women working/non-working, aged 25-50 years, non-smoker, non-pregnant, having stress related symptoms but never undergone yogic training were enrolled and informed consent were obtained. Women doing daily exercises and having major medical/surgical illnesses were excluded. History, general and physical examinations, anthropometric data, vital data and stress assessment (done by Zung self-rated anxiety scale) of women were noted before & after 16 weeks of yoga training. Statistical analysis was done by paired-t test and values shown in mean ± SD. Results: Out of total 50 women, 18 were working and 32 were non-working but doing household works. Anxiety scores before and after yoga training was found 47.04 ± 1.99 and 32.20 ± 4.72 respectively. The difference observed in anxiety score was statistically significant (p