Effects Of Yogic Practices with And Without Therapeutic Exercises on Prenatal Depression Level Among Antenatal Middle-Aged Women

Abstract

The purpose of the random group experimental study was to find out the Effect of Yogic Practices with and without Therapeutic Exercises on selected Psychological Variable, Depression level among Antenatal Middle Aged Women. It was hypothesized that there would be significant differences on selected psychological variable in yogic practices with and without therapeutic exercises group than the control group. It was hypothesized that there would be significant differences in psychological variable between the experimental groups. To achieve the purpose of study, 45 antenatal middle aged women with increased depression level were selected from in and around Gobichettipalayam city, aged between25to37yrs and assigned randomly to each experimental groups and control group consisting of 15 subjects each. Experimental Group 1 underwent only yogic practices for 12 weeks, five days per week for maximum period of 1 hour in the evening. Experimental Group 2 underwent yogic practices with therapeutic exercises for same period of time and duration. The Control Group was kept in active rest period.  The pre and post test were conducted before and after the training for all three groups.  Depression levels were measured using Depression Scale (EPDS). The obtained data were statistically analyzed by using analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA) and scheffe’s post hoc test was carried out to determine the significant difference and tested at 0.05 level of confidence. The result of the study showed that the depression level was significantly reduced due the practices of yoga and therapeutic exercises (EXP 2) better than the yogic practice group (EXP1). And both experimental group showed significant improvement in depression levels i.e., reduction due to the influences of combined effects of yogic and therapeutic exercises than the control group. Hence both the hypothesis was accepted at 0.05 level of confidence. Thus the conclusion was that the yogic practices with and without therapeutic exercises helped in improvement on depression level among antenatal middle aged women than the control group.