Effectiveness of yoga upon stress among post menopausal women

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: An experimental study to assess the effectiveness of yoga upon stress among post menopausal women in selected areas of Chennai. OBJECTIVES: 1. To find out the stress level among post menopausal women in selected areas of Chennai. 2. To assess the effectiveness of yoga among postmenopausal women. 3. To find out the association between selected variables and the level of stress among the control and experimental groups of post menopausal women. 4. To assess the level of satisfaction regarding yoga among the experimental group of post menopausal women. NULL HYPOTHESES: Ho1: There will be no significant difference in stress scores among post menopausal women before and after yoga in the experimental and control groups. Ho2: There will be no significant association between selected variables and level of stress among post menopausal women before and after of yoga in the experimental and control groups. METHODS: Conceptual framework of this study was based on Roy‘s adaptation Model of conceptualization of stress adaptation which was modified for the present study. An extensive review of literature and guidance by experts laid the foundation to the development of proforma, Perceived stress scale and level of satisfaction. An experimental approach with two group pre test and post test design was adopted for the study. The present study was conducted at selected villages in Chennai at Ayanambakkam, The sample size was 60 and they were selected randomly by simple random sampling of which 30 were assigned to the control group and 30 were assigned to the experimental group after randomization. The investigator used four types of tools to collect data from the post menopausal women. The data collection tools were validated and reliability was established. After the pilot study, the data collection of the main study was done. Yoga was administered to all post menopausal women in the experimental group for 7 days. Stress level was assessed before and after the administration of yoga for the control and experimental groups. The collected data were tabulated and analyzed using appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics. MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY: In the control and experimental groups majority of them were married (80%, 97%), house wives (73%, 87%), dependent (73%, 87%) and all of them were non vegetarian (100%, 100%). Their age group was between 51-55 (33%, 50%) and they belonged to Hindu religion (40%, 56%), illiterate (66%, 66%), living in nuclear family (67%, 47%) and had family income of < 3000 (63%, 54%). Twenty seven percentage of them in the control group and 13% of them in the experimental group were moderate workers. Forty seven percentage in the control group and 37% in the experimental group had 3 children. • In this present study majority of them had knee and joint pain (97%, 87%) and sleep disturbances (87%, 93%) in the control and experimental groups. Most of them had over weight problem (66%, 50%) and only some of them had diagnosed problems such as Hypertension (27%, 20%), Diabetes (20%, 20%). • The mean and standard deviation of stress level in pretest and post test in the control group was 39 ± 9 and 37 ± 8 (p>0.05) whereas in the experimental group it was 40 ±8 and 27± 5 (p < 0.001) which indicated that yoga is effective in reducing the stress level among postmenopausal women. Thus the null hypothesis Ho1 was rejected. • There was no association between selected demographic variables and the stress level before and after yoga in the control and experimental. • There was no significant association between selected clinical variables and the stress level before and after yoga in the experimental group. • There was no significant association between selected clinical variables and the stress level before and after yoga in the control group except for the variable of duration after menopause. • Majority of the clients were highly satisfied (77%) and significant percentage of them were satisfied (23%) with the intervention (yoga). RECOMMENDATIONS: The same study could be conducted on a large sample for longer duration to generalize the results. • A similar study could be conducted in different age groups to assess the effectiveness of yoga. • A comparative study could be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of yoga with other relaxation techniques. • It may be conducted in different settings