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The effects of yoga on stress and psychological health among employees: an 8- and 16-week intervention study
Abstract
Background: The stresses of modern work life necessitate effective coping strategies that are accessible and affordable to the general public. Yoga has been found to reduce stress in clinical samples, but studies are needed to examine standard gym yoga classes among functional individuals.
Objectives: This study investigated the effects of 8- and 16-week gym yoga on stress and psychological health.
Design and Method: Ninety individuals reporting moderate-to-high stress were randomly assigned to 16 consecutive weeks of yoga, or to a waitlist crossover group who did not practice yoga for 8 weeks then practiced yoga for 8 weeks. Stress and psychological health variables were assessed at baseline, 8 weeks, and 16 weeks.
Results: Significant reductions in stress and all psychological health measures were found within the Yoga group over 16 weeks. When compared to the control group, yoga practitioners showed significant decreases in stress, anxiety, and general psychological health, and significant increases in well-being. The group who did not practice yoga showed significant decreases in stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia after they crossed over and practiced yoga for 8 weeks.
Conclusions: Gym yoga appears to be effective for stress amelioration and promotion of psychological health among workers experiencing stress.
... Apart from such findings, the administration of this stress tool twice changed the school's perspective regarding faculty stress and well-being and Faculty reported different measures they use to cope with stress, like family time, spirituality, scheduling, exercise, getting enough sleep, and others, many of which were previously reported (Alosaimi et al., 2015;Alosaimi et al., 2018;Białek & Sadowski, 2019;Shahin et al., 2023). Only a few faculty acknowledged yoga and meditation as a coping strategy, despite being previously described as effective for ameliorating stress (Green & Kinchen, 2021;Maddux et al., 2018). Also, not more than 20% of the faculty resorted to coping with stress through stress management workshops, initiatives reported to enhance well-being and significantly reduce stress among different populations not limited to educators (Acquadro Maran et al., 2018;Ene et al., 2021;Ugwuanyi et al., 2021). ...
Background: Exploring faculty stress and coping strategies among pharmacy educators has not been previously addressed among Lebanese pharmacy schools. The study’s aim was to validate the Faculty Stress Index (FSI) among pharmacy educators and to assess stress and coping strategies in a school of pharmacy in Lebanon.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered web-based questionnaire.
Results: The FSI structure was validated with factor analysis. All items had good factor loading that ranged from 0.561 to 0.926. All models were verified to be adequate with satisfactory KMO measures of sampling adequacy and a significant Bartlett’s test of sphericity with p < 0.001. FSI reliability was confirmed by the very good to excellent Cronbach’s alpha values for each stress area that ranged from 0.851 to 0.972. Faculty members had mean total stress scores of 129.43 (±56.90) and 115.59 (±57.34) over 2 academic years, respectively, with higher scores indicating more stress. The greatest stress areas were Time Constraint and Satisfaction with Online Courses. Spending time with family, spirituality, and getting enough sleep were the stress coping strategies considered by the majority of faculty members.
Conclusion: This study provided a watchful apprehension of stress levels and key areas precipitating stress among pharmacy educators.
... For future yoga interventions, it may be helpful to place more emphasis on yogic breathing techniques (pranayama) and to create safe and supportive environments that encourage comfort and mutual trust among the group practicing yoga. These approaches can be effective in addressing both general stress and PTSD (Maddux et al., 2018). ...
This study aimed to examine students' experiences with yoga interventions in school. The findings revealed that practicing yoga made young people more aware of their need to relax and positively impacted their mental health and wellbeing. We explored the emphasis on relaxation among our study participants and how relaxation is related to other aspects, such as their experience of stress and sleep habits. This article is based on qualitative data gathered from teenagers in Norway who participated in the Norwegian part of the European research project "Hippocampus: Promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing among Young People through Yoga." The project introduced yoga to young people in schools with an emphasis on those who were disadvantaged, including those with mental health issues and other challenges related to their background. Data were collected from nine individual, semi-structured interviews and 133 logs collected in the spring of 2019. The major themes identified through the interviews and log material included becoming more relaxed and aware of the need to unwind. Thus, the focus on relaxation is based on the importance of the participants assigned to this theme. The study results suggest that yoga enhanced the students' awareness and skills and empowered them to make healthier lifestyle choices. We viewed the importance of relaxation from a salutogenic perspective, focusing on the factors that contribute to good health in contrast to a pathogenic perspective, where curing diseases is the goal.
... In contrast, yoga is a complementary mind-body intervention with a limited focus on cognition and yet has also been found helpful in reducing psychosomatic challenges such as stress and burnout in the clinical sample [76]. Interestingly, the combination of yoga-based CBT interventions among teachers [22,28] has been reported to be effective in reducing stress and burnout, perhaps by combining benefits derived from both cognitive and bodybased foci. ...
Background: Teaching is recognized as a highly challenging profession. Experience of chronic stress is a risk factor for poor mental and physical well-being, and burnout. There is limited knowledge regarding optimal interventions to address stress and burnout among teachers. Objective: To undertake a scoping review of the literature in the last five years to determine various psychological interventions to address stress and burnout among teachers. Method: The PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews was followed. Relevant search terms were used to determine different interventions adopted to reduce teachers’ stress and burnout. Articles published between 2018 and 2022 were identified using five bibliographic databases. Relevant articles were extracted, reviewed, collated, and thematically analyzed, and findings s were summarized. Results: Forty studies conducted in Asia, North America, Oceania, Europe, and Africa, met the inclusion criteria. Sixteen kinds of burnout and stress-reduction interventions were identified. The most popularly studied intervention were Mindfulness-Based Interventions alone or in combination with yoga or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), followed by Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT). Mindfulness-Based Interventions led to decreased overall Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI) and emotional exhaustion subscale scores. REBT, primarily used with special education teachers, especially in Africa, has also shown positive results. Other interventions reporting positive outcomes include Inquiry-Based Stress Reduction (IBSR), the Stress Management and Resiliency Training Program (SMART), Cyclic Meditation, Group Sandplay, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Autogenic Training, Sport-Based Physical Activity, Emotional Intelligence Ability Models and Christian Prayer and Prayer-Reflection. Conclusions: Stress and burnout can have a negative impact on teachers and, very often, on the students they teach. Implementing suitable school-based interventions is necessary to improve teachers’ stress-coping ability, reduce the likelihood of burnout and improve general well-being. Policymakers, governments, school boards and administrators should prioritize the implementation of school-based awareness and intervention programs.
... Much research have been carried out to determine and develop methods to prevent the complicated effects of stress and anxiety. It is well-known that chi, meditation, prayer, worship, and regular exercise have positive effects on stress and anxiety (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18). ...
... Sebagai salah satu jenis kegiatan olah raga yang mengedepankan kesehatan fisik dan mental (Balasubramaniam et al., 2013;Bennetts, 2022;Brinsley et al., 2022;Daukantaitė et al., 2018;Harvey et al., 2020;Maddux et al., 2018;Marshall et al., 2020;Sfendla et al., 2018), perkembangan yoga dalam format kelas daring pun mengalami peningkatan kepopuleran yang signifikan selama masa pandemi COVID-19 (Manopriya et al., 2021). Tidak hanya sebagai kelas kebugaran yang terbuka untuk masyarakat umum, kelas yoga yang ditujukan sebagai terapi kondisi medis pun semakin banyak yang dilakukan dalam format daring berupa layanan telehealth (Newcombe, 2009;Snyder et al., 2021). ...
Kelas yoga daring dalam berbagai format mengalami peningkatan popularitas setelah pandemi COVID-19 melanda dunia. Tren ini dianggap memudahkan peserta maupun instruktur, namun juga memunculkan kekhawatiran tersendiri terkait kenyamanan dan keselamatan peserta. Mengetahui pilihan yang dianggap lebih memuaskan di mata para peserta kelas yoga (customer): kelas yoga dalam format daring atau luring. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan menggunakan kuesioner daring melalui Google Form yang disebarkan melalui beberapa aplikasi pesan instan kepada 49 orang yang diperoleh dari beberapa komunitas yoga. 7 responden tidak memenuhi kriteria inklusi. Pengolahan data untuk membandingkan kepuasan pelanggan terhadap kelas yoga luring dan daring dilakukan dengan menggunakan perangkat lunak Minitab, dengan menggunakan prosedur paired t-test terhadap jawaban yang diperoleh dari bagian kedua dan bagian ketiga dari kuesioner. Kemudian dilakukan dilakukan uji korelasi dengan metode Pearson Correlation Test untuk mengetahui korelasi antara kepuasan pelanggan dengan aspek-aspek yang diteliti pada kuesioner. Berdasarkan uji komparasi T-test yang dilakukan, diperoleh angka p-value <0,05 untuk seluruh aspek yang dibandingkan, yaitu Outcome Quality (OQ), Relational Quality (RQ), Physical Environment (PE), Safety & Risks (SR), Customer Satisfaction (SAT), Word-of-Mouth (WOM), dan Psychological Commitment (COM). Seluruh uji komparasi memperoleh nilai mean lebih tinggi pada kelas yoga luring daripada kelas yoga daring. Format kelas yoga daring belum mampu menggantikan kelas yoga konvensional yang berformat luring di mata para pesertanya. Hasil dari penelitian ini dapat dimanfaatkan sebagai salah satu pertimbangan untuk melibatkan faktor kepuasan pelanggan dalam menentukan langkah yang dapat diambil untuk meningkatkan kualitas kelas yoga dalam format daring, atau untuk penelitian lanjutan.
... An acute sun salutation intervention of 30 min resulted in a decrease in state anxiety (Phansikar & Mullen, 2022). In studies testing Dru yoga or "power yoga" interventions (which focus on movement sequences different than the present study) participants decreased stress and anxiety as compared to a control group (Hartfiel et al., 2012;Maddux et al., 2018). Additionally, there is growing support for stress and anxiety reduction following low-intensity Hatha yoga interventions, with a moderate to large effect size (Zoogman et al., 2019). ...
The feasibility of a moderate-intensity yoga intervention, delivered remotely via supervised and unsupervised sessions, and its psychosocial and cognitive effects have not been thoroughly investigated. This randomized controlled trial assessed feasibility and preliminary efficacy of an 8-week moderate-intensity yoga intervention (3×/week, 50 min) delivered remotely (vs. a waitlist control arm), on stress and cognitive functioning. Participants (n = 86) were low active, full-time working adults (81.40% female; Mage = 41 years) with symptoms of stress. Feasibility was assessed via adherence, enjoyment, and safety; stress and anxiety via self-report questionnaires; and executive functioning via neuropsychological tests. Overall attendance was 75.1%, 100% of participants enjoyed the intervention, and only one adverse event was reported. At follow-up, the yoga group had significantly lower stress and anxiety, and higher accuracy on working memory tasks. Remote moderate intensity yoga practice proved safe, enjoyable, and may reduce stress and improve cognitive functioning. This study was pre-registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04740229).
Abstract Vehicular cloud networks (VCNs) are becoming more popular these days
due to their applicability in multifarious applications across the globe. The VCNs
are alternative application of the cloud computing domain that is an arrangement of
the cloud as well as Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET) technologies. Primarily,
the VCNs are made of diverse clouds namely the infrastructure cloud, conventional
information technology (IT) cloud, and vehicular cloud. Failure of link and malicious
node detection are becoming a major issue nowadays due to the increasing traffic
across the globe. Some of the major problems with VANET are routing, security, and
privacy that demands more attention and pragmatic solutions in order to minimize the
chances of accidental situations on the road. In this paper, a novel model is proposed in
order to resolve the existing issues related to the fault tolerance in the VCNs, i.e., link
failure and malicious node detection and reconfiguration. This test was performed on
the CloudSim simulator on a personal computer having 64-bit operating system and
8 GB (RAM). The results are observed with a high degree of precision and compared
with Heterogeneous Earliest Finish Time (HEFT) algorithm in order to validate th
Real-world problems associated with healthcare domain are dynamic and non-deterministic in nature. Traditional analytics models are no longer effective for diagnostic processes and frequently require a large amount of computation time for decision-making, which cannot be sustainable in a technology-driven world. Soft computing methods, such as neural networks, machine learning, fuzzy logic, not only deal with the existing environment, but are also highly self-adaptive in terms of predicting and classifying new diseases that appear in the existing environment. As a result, these techniques are extremely beneficial and effective for use in the healthcare system. In this paper, we proposed a weighted averaging ensemble technique to perform supervised multi-level classification of dermatological diseases. Our experimental results show that the proposed method achieved significant better results than individual classifier models.KeywordsErythemato-squamous diseasesSoft computing techniquesNeural networksEnsemble classifiers
In today’s era stress has become an integral part of everyone’s life. Experiencing stress for longer period of time can create adverse effect on human physiology. To avoid its adverse effect, it is extremely important to understand physiology of stress. Also, it is very crucial to address all techniques which can help to deal with stress. Yoga is one of the scientific ways to reduce stress which has no side effect, but there is a lack of availability of properly detailed protocol. In this paper, a protocol is being detailed to quantify stress. This detailed protocol can guide researchers to design their own protocol which is very important for developing strong and result-oriented yoga-based study. This paper will discuss from yoga-based practices selection to participants selection to duration of practices to device used (parameters chosen) and some other minor but important parameters.KeywordsYoga-based practices (YBPs)Alternate nostril yoga breathing (ANYB)Data analysisMulti-modalitySingle modality
Objectives: Positive effects of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) on occupational health have been demonstrated by several systematic review studies during the last two decades. So far, existing reviews excluded mindfulness-informed interventions (MIIs) that build on informal approaches or mixed techniques aiming at improving mindfulness indirectly. To address this research gap, the present comprehensive meta-analysis synthesizes the results of RCTs of MBIs and MIIs conducted in various workplace settings.
Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in five electronic databases complemented by manual search. Random-effects models were used to synthesize standardized mean differences (SMDs) for 25 outcomes and seven overarching categories of outcomes, and to detect various temporal effects. Meta-regressions were run to elucidate average SMDs between mindfulness intervention types as well as intervention and population characteristics, with the goal of detecting sources of heterogeneity and help guide the selection of the most appropriate mindfulness intervention type.
Results: Based on 91 eligible studies (from 92 publications), including 4,927 participants and 4,448 controls, the synthesis shows that MBIs and MIIs significantly improve mindfulness (SMD=0.43; 95%-CI[0.33;0.52]), well-being (SMD=0.63; 95%-CI[0.34;0.93]), mental health (SMD=0.67; 95%-CI[0.48;0.86]), stress (SMD=0.72; 95%-CI[0.54;0.90]), resilience (SMD=1.06; 95%-CI[-0.22;2.34]), physical health (SMD=0.45; 95%-CI[0.32;0.59]) and work-related factors (SMD=0.62; 95%-CI[0.14;1.10]). Sensitivity analyses demonstrate a tendency towards smaller effect sizes due to extreme outliers. Effect sizes are stable in short-term follow-up assessments (1-12 weeks) for most outcomes, but not for long-term follow-up assessments (13-52 weeks). Meta-regressions suggest that observable intervention characteristics (e.g., online delivery) and population characteristics (e.g., age of participants), as well as study quality do not explain the prevalence of heterogeneity in effect sizes.
Conclusions: Generally effective, mindfulness interventions are a useful tool to enhance aspects of employee health. However, because of heterogeneity and risk of bias, studies aiming at high quality data collection and thorough reporting are necessary to draw firm conclusions.
Background • Children who experience abuse and neglect and are exposed to adverse life events are at risk of developing emotional and behavioral problems. They may display variable internalizing and externalizing symptoms, such as posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and aggression. Yoga may be able to regulate body-brain pathways that cause stress following traumatic experiences, thereby reducing adverse mental and physical sequelae. Objective • The objective of this preliminary study is to examine changes in functioning following meetings of a yoga-based psychotherapy group (YBPG) for boys with a history of interpersonal trauma exposure. Methods/Design • The study was a prospective, intervention cohort study. Setting • The study occurred at an urban-based mental health center focusing on treatment of children exposed to interpersonal trauma in their communities and families. Participants • Participants were 10 boys, aged 8-12 y, who primarily were African-Americans (70%) and who had a history of trauma. Intervention • The YBPG was a 12-wk, yoga-based, group therapy, integrated with mental health treatment that was trauma informed and evidence-based. Outcome Measures • Measures of attendance and interpersonal functioning-the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale 2 (BERS-2) and patient satisfaction surveys-were collected. The pre- and post-YBPG, paired t test; Wilcoxon's signed rank test; and effect sizes were calculated to assess change in interpersonal functioning following the YBPG, as reported by the parents and children. Results • The BERS-2 scores yielded clinically and statistically significant mean improvements on the parents' ratings of participants' (1) Interpersonal Strength, Intrapersonal Strength, and Family Involvement scores, with mean improvements on those subscales being 1.4 (P = .007), 1.9 (P = .012), and 1.4 (P = .045) points, respectively; and (2) Strength Index scores, with a mean improvement of 8.7 (P = .004). The effect size was in the large range. In addition to significant improvements posttreatment, the parents' mean rating score of their children's functioning was closer but still lower than the children's self-reports on all subscales. The attendance rate for the YBPG was among the highest for group therapies at the center. Conclusions • The study provided preliminary evidence for the feasibility of YBPG as an effective intervention for boys exposed to trauma in urban settings.
Background:
Interventions are needed to alleviate memory difficulty in cancer survivors. We previously showed in a phase III randomized clinical trial that YOCAS©® yoga-a program that consists of breathing exercises, postures, and meditation-significantly improved sleep quality in cancer survivors. This study assessed the effects of YOCAS©® on memory and identified relationships between memory and sleep.
Study design and methods:
Survivors were randomized to standard care (SC) or SC with YOCAS©® . 328 participants who provided data on the memory difficulty item of the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory are included. Sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. General linear modeling (GLM) determined the group effect of YOCAS©® on memory difficulty compared with SC. GLM also determined moderation of baseline memory difficulty on postintervention sleep and vice versa. Path modeling assessed the mediating effects of changes in memory difficulty on YOCAS©® changes in sleep and vice versa.
Results:
YOCAS©® significantly reduced memory difficulty at postintervention compared with SC (mean change: yoga=-0.60; SC=-0.16; P<.05). Baseline memory difficulty did not moderate the effects of postintervention sleep quality in YOCAS©® compared with SC. Baseline sleep quality did moderate the effects of postintervention memory difficulty in YOCAS©® compared with SC (P<.05). Changes in sleep quality was a significant mediator of reduced memory difficulty in YOCAS©® compared with SC (P<.05); however, changes in memory difficulty did not significantly mediate improved sleep quality in YOCAS©® compared with SC.
Conclusions:
In this large nationwide trial, YOCAS©® yoga significantly reduced patient-reported memory difficulty in cancer survivors.
Grit, passion and perseverance for long-term goals, is strongly related to success in goal attainment even under challenging circumstances. We investigated how grit relates to three aspects of well-being: psychological well-being (PWB), satisfaction with life, and harmony in life. This relationship is approached through organismic valuing theory, which proposes that people are naturally motivated to grow towards their highest potential; grit is proposed as being akin to such growth motivation. In two studies (Study 1 with 196 university students, and Study 2 with 396 non-students), direct and indirect (mediating) effects between grit and well-being were investigated. Sense of coherence (SOC) and authenticity were used as mediators, and gender as a moderator. Grit was positively related to all well-being factors, and SOC and authenticity were significant mediators (complementary for PWB and indirect-only for satisfaction with life and harmony in life). This suggests that grittiness in goal pursuits requires both a sense that the world is coherent and an authentic connection with the self in order for it to fully benefit well-being. No gender moderation was found.
The role of psychosocial work stress as a risk factor for chronic disease has been the subject of considerable debate. Many researchers argue in support of a causal connection while others remain skeptical and have argued that the effect on specific health conditions is either negligible or confounded. This review of evidence from over 600,000 men and women from 27 cohort studies in Europe, the USA and Japan suggests that work stressors, such as job strain and long working hours, are associated with a moderately elevated risk of incident coronary heart disease and stroke. The excess risk for exposed individuals is 10-40 % compared with those free of such stressors. Differences between men and women, younger versus older employees and workers from different socioeconomic backgrounds appear to be small, indicating that the association is robust. Meta-analyses of a wider range of health outcomes show additionally an association between work stress and type 2 diabetes, though not with common cancers or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, suggesting outcome specificity. Few studies have addressed whether mitigation of work stressors would reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. In view of the limited interventional evidence on benefits, harms and cost-effectiveness, definitive recommendations have not been made (e.g. by the US Preventive Services Taskforce) for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease via workplace stress reduction. Nevertheless, governments are already launching healthy workplace campaigns, and preventing excessive work stress is a legal obligation in several countries. Promoting awareness of the link between stress and health among both employers and workers is an important component of workplace health promotion.
During recent decades numerous yoga-based practices (YBP) have emerged in the West, with their aims ranging from fitness gains to therapeutic benefits and spiritual development. Yoga is also beginning to spark growing interest within the scientific community, and yoga-based interventions have been associated with measureable changes in physiological parameters, perceived emotional states, and cognitive functioning. YBP typically involve a combination of postures or movement sequences, conscious regulation of the breath, and various techniques to improve attentional focus. However, so far little if any research has attempted to deconstruct the role of these different component parts in order to better understand their respective contribution to the effects of YBP. A clear operational definition of yoga-based therapeutic interventions for scientific purposes, as well as a comprehensive theoretical framework from which testable hypotheses can be formulated, is therefore needed. Here we propose such a framework, and outline the bottom-up neurophysiological and top-down neurocognitive mechanisms hypothesized to be at play in YBP.
Objective: Depression and burnout are two psychopathological labels that have been subject to an extensive discussion over the last decades. The crucial question is whether they can be seen as conceptually equal or as two distinct syndromes. One argument for the distinction is that depression impacts on the whole life of a suffering person whereas burnout is restricted to the job context. Depression has been shown to be affected by life stress. The more stressful life events a person experiences, the more he or she is susceptible for developing a depression. As there is the widespread but controversial opinion that burnout is a prodromal syndrome of depression, the present study examined whether the number of stressful life events is also associated with an increased risk for burnout.
Methods: N = 755 healthy participants and N = 397 depressed patients completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI II) and reported the extent of experienced life stress.
Results: A significantly closer relation between depression and life stress than between burnout and life stress was found in the healthy (z = 3.01, p = .003) as well as in the depressed sample (z = 3.41, p = .001). This finding was supported in both samples by means of a path analytic approach where the associations between life stress, burnout, and depression were controlled for possible mediator and moderator effects, also considering the influence of age.
Conclusion: By considering the influence of life stress it could be demonstrated that depression and burnout are not identical although they share substantial phenotypic variance (r = .46–.61). Most important, the trivariate associations are the same in a representative employee sample and in an inpatient clinical sample suggesting the same underlying mechanisms covering the whole range from normal behavior to psychopathology. However, only longitudinal data can show if burnout necessarily turns into depression with the consequence that the burnout – life stress association approaches the depression – life stress association over time.
This paper evaluates the results of a longitudinal investigation of the potential benefits of yoga in a nonclinical sample of chronically stressed women (N = 116). Women undertook a twice weekly, hour-long yoga class for a period of 2 months, measuring psychological and physical indicators of health periodically. Changes in both areas were compared against a wait-list control group. The reported energy expenditure between groups was estimated to be similar, which suggests that the control group engaged in physical activities other than yoga. Of the six psychological outcomes measured, we found improvements in three. Specifically, those in the practicing yoga group experienced increases in positive affect, decreases in levels of distress and stress, as well as a decrease in waist circumference and increased flexibility. No between-group differences were found in mindfulness, well-being, and negative affect. These findings are generally consistent with an emerging literature, suggesting that yoga may provide both psychological and physiological effects that extend beyond its more obvious physical benefits, and are discussed in terms of the body’s allostatic load. These results should be considered in light of this study’s limitations, which include its small sample size, lack of an “active” control group, and female-only participants.
Yoga can be an effective intervention for physical and psychological symptoms and decreased ability to cope with physical, emotional, vocational, or academic stress. One group of individuals challenged regarding adequate self-care in the face of stress are personnel in university training programs for helping professions (e.g., psychology, nursing, nutrition). This feasibility study explored engagement in and effectiveness of a systematic 10-week yoga program aimed at university faculty, staff, and students. The intervention consisted of 10 weekly 90-minute sessions that were structured to include conceptual grounding, breathing, postures, and meditation. Weekly class outlines were made available to students for home practice. Participants signed informed consents, liability waivers, and health screenings. Self-reports of home practice, barriers to practice, perceived stress, and stress symptoms were used to evaluate whether the intervention was successful in engaging participants and reducing stress-related symptoms. Engagement was demonstrated by study adherence in the first 10-week series (88%; 44 of 50 enrolled), as well as re-enrollment for at least one additional 10-week series (64%; 28 of 44). Intervention success was demonstrated through repeated measure s ANOVAs of 44 participants' data, which showed significant improvement after a single 10-week series in perceived stress, as well as self-reported psychological, behavioral, and physical symptoms of stress. The study demonstrates feasibility of a yoga intervention in an academic setting and provides preliminary evidence for efficacy in stress reduction. It also supplies 10 detailed session protocols for intervention replication.
This is the first book to demonstrate how to use the multilevel and longitudinal modeling techniques available in IBM SPSS Version 18. The authors tap the power of SPSS's Mixed Models routine to provide an elegant and accessible approach to these models. Readers who have learned statistics using this software will no longer have to adapt to a new program to conduct quality multilevel and longitudinal analyses. Annotated screen shots with all of the key output provide readers with a step-by-step understanding of each technique as they are shown how to navigate through the program. Diagnostic tools, data management issues, and related graphics are introduced throughout. SPSS commands show the flow of the menu structure and how to facilitate model building. Annotated syntax is also available for those who prefer this approach. Most chapters feature an extended example illustrating the logic of model development. These examples show readers the context and rationale of the research questions and the steps around which the analyses are structured. The data used in the text and syntax examples are available at http://www.psypress.com/multilevel-modeling-techniques/.
Introduction:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence, patterns, and predictors of yoga use in the U.S. general population.
Methods:
Using cross-sectional data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey Family Core, Sample Adult Core, and Adult Complementary and Alternative Medicine questionnaires (N=34,525), weighted frequencies for lifetime and 12-month prevalence of yoga use and patterns of yoga practice were analyzed. Using logistic regression analyses, sociodemographic predictors of lifetime yoga use were analyzed. Analyses were conducted in 2015.
Results:
Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of yoga use were 13.2% and 8.9%, respectively. Compared with nonpractitioners, lifetime yoga practitioners were more likely female, younger, non-Hispanic white, college educated, higher earners, living in the West, and of better health status. Among those who had practiced in the past 12 months, 51.2% attended yoga classes, 89.9% used breathing exercises, and 54.9% used meditation. Yoga was practiced for general wellness or disease prevention (78.4%), to improve energy (66.1%), or to improve immune function (49.7%). Back pain (19.7%), stress (6.4%), and arthritis (6.4%) were the main specific health problems for which people practiced yoga.
Conclusions:
About 31 million U.S. adults have ever used yoga, and about 21 million practiced yoga in the past 12 months. Disease prevention and back pain relief were the most important health reasons for yoga practice. Yoga practice is associated with age, gender, ethnicity, SES, and health status.