Effect of yoga in medical students to reduce the level of depression, anxiety, and stress: pilot study (Goodbye Stress with Yoga GSY)

Abstract

Introduction: Globally medical students reported high level of stress sensitivity, stress intensity and depression or anxiety. Yoga is proven to be a one of the most effective anxiolytic tools. The current study specifically designed to investigate the effect of yoga intervention on the level of stress, depression, and anxiety of medical student at the University of Pécs. Methods: Twenty-eight medical students from the University of Pécs, with an average age of 23.54 ± 4.36 years and a BMI of 22.42 ± 3.42 kg/m2, participated in a 10-week yoga intervention. In the current study, the DASS-21 was employed to gather information on stress, depression, and anxiety, while self-reported health and quality of life were assessed using the WHOQOL-BREF Questionnaire. The Shapiro-Wilk test was employed to examine the distribution of the data. The choice between the paired sampled T-test and the Wilcoxon signed test was determined based on the distribution of the data. Results: The intervention group exhibited a mean and standard deviation of depression pre- and post-yoga 10.14 ± 10.60 and 7.21 ± 8.56, similarly the values for anxiety were 8.57 ± 10.09 and 5.51 ± 7.42, and for stress values were 12.79 ± 10.73 and 9.64 ± 9.71 respectively. Notably, this outcome attribute to a significant in decreased depression (p = 0.019), anxiety (p = 0.049) among the participants. Conclusions: Introduction of Yoga Intervention significantly decreased in levels of depression and anxiety. By this current study we were able to confirm the necessity of Yoga Intervention with our primary survey.