Effect of Yoga on Physiopsychological Parameters among Hypertensive Adults

Hypertension is a major chronic lifestyle disease and an important public health problem. This leads to numerous micro/macro vascular complications and subjects with hypertension are known to have a two-fold higher risk of developing coronary artery disease, four times higher risk of congestive heart failure and seven times higher risk of cerebro vascular disease compared to normotensive subjects. This community based study tested the efficacy of yoga controlling hypertension by studying its impact on Blood pressure and Anxiety among Hypertension Adults, Kancheepuram district, Tamil nadu, India. Experimental before and after design. Villages under Kattankulathur block, 238 subjects aged 30 60 who were being treated for mild and moderate hypertension took part in the study. The group allocated to practice yoga exercises for 5 days for 2hrs daily and continued performing twice daily for 12 weeks with regular treatment. The control group are also under medications but not given any specific exercises. The data were analyzed by proportions, chi-square tests, student independent t-test, Karl pearson's correlation and 95% confidence intervals. The study shows that the mean systolic BP & Anxiety in interventional group differed significantly. As regards SBP in the pre & post intervention setting the mean SBP is reduced from 152.75 to 138.51 (14.24) mm of hg and For control group, 152.85to 152.38 (-0.47) mm ofhg. This fall in SBP in Intervention group was statistically significant (p<0.05) compared to the control group. Likewise for DBP, it is reduced from 94.51to 86.17 (8.34) mm ofhg whereas the change in DBP values of the control group was not significant. State trait Anxiety Inventory was used to assess the level of anxiety and showed a mean reduction of 12.6% state anxiety and 11.3% trait anxiety among interventional group. The yoga asanas were very simple and can be done in the home setup with the daily activities to decrease the blood pressure and Anxiety to avoid Blood Pressure related complications.