A Study of Effects of Yoga Versus Physical Exercise on Psychological Parameters, Hand Grip Strength and Reaction Time during Examination Stress in Young Female Medical Students

Present study was carried out on 60 first-year MBBS students who were assigned into two groupsyoga group (Group 1) and physical exercise group (Group 2) (30 each). Group 1 underwent yoga practices and Group 2 underwent exercise on bicycle ergometer for 40 minutes daily for twelve weeks. Formative examinations were conducted at 6 weeks (stressor 1) and 12 weeks (stressor 2). Following recordings were taken at baseline, stressor 1 and 2: Auditory (ART)&Visual reaction time (VRT), Handgrip strength endurance (HGE), Speilberger's State anxiety inventory for adults (STAIA) and inventories developed by Defense Institute for Physiology&Applied Sciences (DIPAS). In our study, it was observed that there was significant decrease in STAI-A scores in Group 1 subjects at both stressors (p < 0.001) with no change seen in Group 2 subjects. There was significant decrease in trait anxiety and depression scores at both stressors in both the groups. However, significant reduction in depression from stressor 1 to 2 occurred in only group 1 subjects. There was significant improvement in sense of wellbeing at both stressors 1 and 2 (p < 0.001) in Group 1 subjects whereas significant improvement occurred in Group 2 subjects only at stressor 2 (p<0.01). There was improvement in HGE in both groups at both stressors with more improvement from stressor 1 to 2 in Group 2 subjects. Also, there was significant reduction in ART in only Group 1 subjects (p <0.05) at stressor 2 with no change in Group 2 subjects. Our study demonstrates that both forms of intervention i.e. yoga training and physical exercises are beneficial for the subjects in reducing the effect of examination stress but the effect of effect of yoga is immediate and more pronounced on all parameters except HGE.