A short-term, comprehensive, yoga-based lifestyle intervention is efficacious in reducing anxiety, improving subjective well-being and personality (original) (raw)

2012, International Journal of Yoga

diseases. [8,9] Yoga [10] and psychoneuroimmunology are two such potential intervention modules of alternative and complementary medicine that are emerging as foundations of mind-body medicine. [11] We have previously shown that this short-term lifestyle intervention is effective in reducing oxidative stress, [12] fasting glucose, and improving lipid profile as early as 10 days. [13] Though health-related quality of life is generally used to measure overall well-being of an individual, a self-evaluation of health status, levels of anxiety [5] and personality traits [14] can also predict mortality and treatment outcomes, sometimes better than that predicted by current health status or other risk factors. [15-17] This might be important, especially in case of lifestyle-related diseases [18] and may provide important clinical information. However, only a few studies have evaluated the association between lifestyle and self-rated mental and physical health in a general population [19-22] or patients with other lifestyle-related diseases. Therefore, we conducted the Objective: To assess the efficacy of a short-term comprehensive yoga-based lifestyle intervention in reducing anxiety, improving subjective well-being and personality. Materials and Methods: The study is a part of an ongoing larger study at a tertiary care hospital. Participants (n=90) included patients with chronic diseases attending a 10-day, yoga-based lifestyle intervention program for prevention and management of chronic diseases, and healthy controls (n=45) not attending any such intervention. Primary Outcome Measures: Change in state and trait anxiety questionnaire (STAI-Y; 40 items), subjective well-being inventory (SUBI; 40 items), and neuroticism extraversion openness to experience five factor personality inventory revised (NEO-FF PI-R; 60 items) at the end of intervention. Results: Following intervention, the STAI-Y scores reduced significantly (P<0.001) at Day 10 (66.7 ± 13.0) versus Day 1 (72.5 ± 14.7). Also, positive SUBI scores (F1-F6) improved significantly (P<0.01) at Day 10 versus Day 1. Similarly NEO-FF PI-R scores improved significantly (P<0.001) at Day 10 versus Day 1. Control group showed an increase in STAI-Y while SUBI and NEO-FF PI-R scores remained comparable at Day 10 versus Day 1. Conclusions: The observations suggest that a short-term, yoga-based lifestyle intervention may significantly reduce anxiety and improve subjective well-being and personality in patients with chronic diseases.