Effect of Yoga on Somato-Vegetative Symptoms of Menopausal Women and its Association with Demographic Variables among Yoga and Non-Yoga Groups

Abstract

As longevity increases, the population of menopausal age group women is rising in India as elsewhere. According to the Indian Menopausal Society, the number of menopausal women is around 43 million. Fortunately, menopause is now better understood and more openly discussed than ever before. This study sought to assess and compare the effect of Yoga on somato-vegetative menopausal symptoms of women before and after administration of Yoga between Yoga and Non–Yoga groups and to associate the post-test somato-vegetative menopausal symptoms with the selected demographic variables in two groups. It had a true experimental design involving random assignment to treatment group and control group. The study was conducted between June 2015 and July 2016 among menopausal women coming in selected Sub Centres in two Primary Health Centres. The sample size was 120 each in Yoga group and Non-Yoga group. There were 12 drop outs in the Yoga group. The study adopted cluster sampling technique with randomisation. Majority (61.1%) of them experienced mild somato-vegetative symptoms and signi cant (34.3%) of them experienced moderate level of somato-vegetative symptoms after post-test in the Yoga group. The study showed a reduction in menopausal somato-vegetative symptoms in Yoga group of menopausal women thus proving Yoga intervention to be effective. Women in menopause showed a positive attitude towards performing Yoga as they found it safe in their home settings.