Association of Yoga with Happiness and Self-Esteem among Undergraduate Students of Government Medical College – A Comparative Observational Study

Abstract

Background: Study showed only 60.8% of the medical students were happy. The prevalence of
low self-esteem had been found to be 18% in medical students. There has been a recent spurt in deaths by
suicide among medical professionals in India. An inverse association exists between suicide rates and
happiness. Yoga has become popular as a way of promoting physical and mental well-being. To determine
association of yoga with happiness and self-esteem and to estimate the proportion of happiness and selfesteem among medical students. Settings and Design: Government medical college, Comparative
observational study. Material And Methods: Self-administered scales for happiness and self-esteem were
provided to for base line data collection to assess their happiness and self-esteem using online Google
forms. Students attending 10-day yoga session were selected as case group and students not attending
yoga session were selected as control group. At the end of 10-day yoga follow up data collection was done.
Statistical analysis used: simple proportions paired, unpaired t test, Pearson’s correlation. Result: The
prevalence of happiness among participants was 59.65% and the prevalence in male was 59.7% while in
female it was 59.6% which is almost identical to male. There was significant increase in happiness level in
post yoga score (p-0.014). The mean difference of happiness score between cases and controls was not
significant. In case group, mean self-esteem score pre yoga was 24.7 ± 1.69 and post yoga was 25.10 ± 1.87
(p-0.07), whereas in control pre yoga score was 24.89 ± 2.02 and post yoga score was 24.9 ± 3.68 (p-0.44)
the difference was not significant in both groups. Conclusion: Association was found between yoga and
happiness but no association was observed between yoga and self-esteem. [Shekhda H Natl J Integr Res
Med, 2023; 14(4):01-05, Published on Dated: 08/07/2023]