The Effects Of A Regular Yoga Practice On Mental Health In College Students During COVID-19

Abstract

College students often experience stress and anxiety, with many reporting increased stress and anxiety due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A regular yoga practice has been shown to reduce anxiety in this population prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine if a 12-week regular yoga practice taught over Zoom would improve measures of mental health in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Students were recruited from Yoga 1 classes (Yoga, Y) or from various non-yoga professors at the University (Control, C) at the start of the semester. Upon enrollment, all participants responded to an online survey regarding their level of physical activity (IPAQ short form), perceived daily stress (1 = low; 5 = high, often difficult to handle), and state and trait anxiety (STAI forms Y1 and Y2). During the next 12 weeks, Y students participated in 150 minutes/week of a regular beginner’s yoga practice taught over Zoom. C students participated in their classes as usual and were asked not to make any major changes to their fitness routine. At the completion of Week 12, participants completed the follow up survey, identical to baseline. Due to the small sample size and violation of normality in some variables, all variables were compared via Mann Whitney Rank Sum tests. RESULTS: 24 yoga participants (Y: 17F; 21 ± 1 yrs) and 21 non-yoga participants (C: 18F; 21 ± 1 yrs) completed the entire study with Y students attending at least 80% of their scheduled yoga classes. There were no differences between groups in total MET minutes per week (MEAN ± SEM: Y 4032 ± 611 vs C 4255 ± 728 min, p = 0.979), ratings of daily stress (Y 2.9 ± 0.2 vs C 2.9 ± 0.2, p = 0.761), and STAI Y1 (Y 43.8 ± 2.3 vs C 44.6 ± 2.5, p = 0.900) or Y2 surveys (Y 44.1 ± 2.2 vs C 44.8 ± 3.0, p = 0.838) at baseline. There was also no difference between groups in total MET minutes per week (Y 3905 ± 582 vs C 4233 ± 827 min, p = 0.973), daily stress (Y 2.8 ± 0.2 vs C 2.8 ± 0.2, p = 0.787) STAI Y1 (Y 42.0 ± 1.9 vs C 41.8 ± 2.5, p = 0.750) or Y2 (Y 41.7 ± 2.1 vs C 44.8 ± 2.5 p = 0.387) surveys after 12 weeks. CONCLUSION: 12 weeks of a regular yoga practice taught over Zoom did not improve measures of mental health in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. These results are not consistent with previous work that suggested the beneficial effects of regular yoga practice on mental health.