Perception Of First Year Students On Yoga Exercises On Their Physiological And Psychological Wellbeing

NUR721 Research in Healthcare

Project Title

Perception of First year students on Yoga Exercises on their Physiological and Psychological wellbeing

The project will involve an assessment on the perception of first year students with regard to taking part in Yoga exercises. The association between physical exercises and mental health status has proven to have more positive outcome, thus this study will perform a study on how students perceive the exercises. The project will involve a representative sample of First year student at the university whom will be selected randomly and based on the inclusion criteria and excluded on the basis of being non-first year. The project will use basic common data collections tools like the questionnaires which have a rating scale using the Likeart scale, which the students will rate, then finally the descriptive data will be analyzed and results interpreted and onward recommendation would be initiated.

Semantic benefits have always been documented with regard to physical exercises with evident from trials being attached, the relation between the physical exercises and the psychosocial and physiological benefits are less plentiful. Neither, the standard guidelines like those of American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) nor the international policy documents and policies on yoga physical exercises have made specific guidelines with regard to mental health. This is true in that, out of the documents presented for review, by Blair et al, a total only 2 documents made mention of psychosocial benefits associated with Yoga exercises, generally common terms used in the medical practitioner in the health care center. The relevance of this study, is that it will inform the university administration on the role it plays in advocating uptake in yoga among the students and be able to resolve the underlying factors which the students often consider and view yoga exercises

The purpose of this research issue is to investigate the perceived levels of wellness and psychological health of Yoga as exercises amongst first year students in the university. Yoga has been fronted as an intervention of variety of physical and mental ailments and has been increasingly been researched over the past years, (Moliver, 2010; Watts,2000). Yoga provides a holistic practice of mind, energy and the whole body and promote fullness of sense as a way of life, (Watts, 2000; Chaoul & Cohen ,2010). The students have been experiencing various psychological and psychological issues with regard to their school general stay. There have been numerous levels of stress reported and students missing class due to not being to fully concentrate in class.

Yoga philosophy

The philosophical background understanding of Yoga, has been identified with  wellness. Yoga encourages an individual to achieve their high well being potentiality, which reflects a state of integration in the body, mind and spirit working closely together, (Herriott & Smith, 2008).  Yoga is termed to have effects on the state of mind, and enables focus on the modulation of promoting relaxation and improving the overall sense of well being among people, (Berger, Silver, & Stein, 2009).

Yoga exercises and health

The positive attributes have been linked on physical exercises on prevention and treatment of a wide range of medical conditions. This has led to numerous reporting recommending exercises for positive body growth. Form these findings, recommendations on yoga exercises have been recommended to be adopted. Researchers have suggested that the mechanism of association of yoga physical exercises and mental health state are complex in nature, it combines itself in a mix of biological and social factors, (Biddle & Matie, 2001; Fountaine, 2000). Crone et al., (2005) study concurs with these studies and further expounds on the association in the mix of different cultures. Studies thus have summarized that contextual factors like social networks, environment, culture and social influences have an impact on the livelihoods of the people.

Plain language description of the project

Benefits of Yoga

The body of literature have shown remarkable provision of evidence on the positive association of physical activity and the mental health of individuals, (Biddle et al., 2000). This evidential link of excerisizes and positive health has led to recommendation on Yoga exercises to be implemented for treatment of mental illness. In UK publication of UK practitioners guide for people with mental illness, (Grant, 2000) has resulted in development of physical activities aimed at promoting positive health on mental status of patients. Yoga has been a physical exercises activity which has been utilized for so long and yet its advantage has not been fully exploited. The yoga itself consist of several stretching and meditation exercises, which are known to improve strengths and flexibility of the participants, it has been shown to contribute positively on metabolic, physiological and psychological aspects of human beings, (Raub, 2002). Application of various interventions on yoga has been found to be beneficial on human’s beings. It has studied and proven to have an effect on body weight management, blood glucose control and cholesterol in patients already diagnosed with diabetes and heart related diseases, (Gordon et al., 2008).

Yoga perceptions

Studies conducted have found out that yoga exercise perception has been perceived differently in the diverse populations. Yoga has been endorsed as an exercise that promotes spiritual growth, manage health conditions and as an exercises’ activity. Motivating factors as to pertaining the exercise involves for stress management, general wellness and stress management, (Quilty, Saper, Goldstein & Khalsa, 2013).

Barriers of undertaking Yoga exercise involves the lack of availability of time to participate in the exercises, location of practicing, for students, they have reported lack of time due to class time activities, (Quilty, Saper, Goldstein & Khalsa, 2013).

6 The Project In this section you need to use the headings provided to give information about all aspects of the methods and procedures

The aim of the study will be exploring the perceptions of Yoga exercises in deep understanding of the unique perspective that Yoga brings to mental and physical health of the university students. Focus on the wellness and wellbeing, brings into view the mental health with disregard to absence of mental illness. With regard with the potential benefits Yoga, it is expected that the broad literature with regard to positive effects of Yoga on various symptoms and disease.

The research questions associated with this study involves an the following questions;

1.Do Yoga exercises have any significant attributes on the health of the students?

H0 There is no significant contribution of Yoga exercise on my wellbeing

H1 There is significant contribution of Yoga Exercises on my well being

2.What are the factors that are affecting student participation and interest on Yoga exercises?

H1 There are significant factors which affect my participation on Yoga exercises’ in campus

H0 There are no significant factors which affect my participation of Yoga exercises in campus

The study utilizes survey based design with self based questionnaires. Self reporting methods will be used as they allow respondents to give their own views directly, (Barker, Pistrang & Elliot, 2005). The utilization of self reporting method is beneficial in that it allows the participants access to their own perception thoughts in their own world. However one disadvantage which might be encountered in this study is the effect of the participants not giving truth full information, as some might not have any insights in their own experiences. However utilizing self reporting for this kind of study will be beneficial in gaining greater understanding of the participant’s experiences of Yoga and highlight the advantages and perceptions relating to Yoga exercises.

Significance/relevance of the project

The sample populations will be adults aged 18 years and over who are first year students at the University. Their recruitment will be informed by the use of inclusion and exclusion criteria; hereby they will be included in the study if they are both first years and above. The exclusion criteria will be if they are not first years, they will not participate in the study. For getting actual power analysis of the participants, G-power tool will be used to determine this, version 3.0 software; post hoc power determination will be used to determine the study power. The correct estimate sample size power will obtained. With this an estimated sample power for this study will be 200 students of mixed gender, randomly selected in the population.

The survey was anonymous, and allowed for random assigning of the participants information to provided nondisclosure of information. The measures of the study will be combined into one file and the form be given to the participates in the study to fill, the questionnaire will have various section, an introductory part, exclusion and inclusion criteria, informed consent from and then the survey questions.

The data obtained in the survey will be assessed and coded into computer excel program for further analysis. The data will be then transferred into statistical software program in this case IBM Spss software version 20. Data will be checked and descriptive statistics will be obtained and processed accordingly, (Barker et al., 2005 p. 227)

The ethical approval will be sought from the University, Ethics Commission and it will inform the start of the research. The study will be largely a survey based; hence no harm is likely to be encountered in the study population. Ethical issues to be subjected to the participants are the informed consent section, whereby the students will be requested permission to perform in the survey. Principles of anonymity and confidentiality will be applied in completion of this study task. Due to the nature of the study, physical to the participants will be kept at minimal levels. The participants were fully consenting adults.

The research findings obtained in this study will be disseminated at various levels which are within reach and with consideration of action players in physical activities. The findings will be disseminated to the university school boards committee in charge of sports and co curricular activities. This is due to the direct role the committee plays in ensuring that the students get adequate gaming and physical exercises to facilitating healthy learning process. The findings will be able to help in panning and regulating factors which might be affecting the students in participating in Yoga exercises campus. The committee will be able to act on the recommendations from the study. The research findings will be disseminated also, during the usual opening address of the University, whereby request for a slot will be made, and the findings will be shared to whole the faculty and the students, as the general gathering, as is beneficial in capturing the presence of everybody in school.

References

Biddle, S. J. H., Fox, K. R., & Boucher, S. H. (2000). Physical activity and psychological well-being. London.

Berger, D. L., Silver, J. E., & Stein, R. E. K. (2009). Effects of Yoga on inner-city children’s well-being: A pilot study.  Alternative Therapies, 15(5), 36-42

Crone, D., Smith, A., & Gough, B. (2005). “I feel totally alive, totally happy and totally at one”: A psycho-social explanation of the physical activity and mental health relationship from the experiences of participants on exercise referral schemes. Health Education Research, 20(5), 600–611.

Gordon LA, Morrison EY, McGrowder DA, Young R, Fraser YT, Zamora EM, Alexander Lindo RL, Irving RR BMC Complement Altern Med. 2008 May 13; 8:21

Grant, T. (Ed.). (2000). Physical activity and mental  health: National consensus statements and guidelines for practitioners.London: Health Education Authority.

Herriott, E. N., & Smith, T. R. (2008). Yoga therapy in the wellness revolution. International Journal of Yoga Therapy, 18, 39-42.

Moliver, N. (2010).  Psychological wellness, physical wellness, and subjective vitality in yoginis over 45.  (Doctoral dissertation) Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database (UMI No. 3411163)

Quilty, M. T., Saper, R. B., Goldstein, R., & Khalsa, S. B. S. (2013). Yoga in the Real World: Perceptions, Motivators, Barriers, and patterns of Use. Global Advances in Health and Medicine, 2(1), 44–49. https://doi.org/10.7453/gahmj.2013.2.1.008

Routledge.Raub JA,(2002). Psychophysiologic effects of Hatha Yoga on musculoskeletal and cardiopulmonary function: a literature review. Journal  Altern Complement Med. 2002 Dec; 8(6):797-812

Watts, F. (2000). Psychological research questions about Yoga.  Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 3(1), 71-83. doi: 10.1080/13674670050002126