EFFECT OF YOGA ON PHYSICAL AND PSYCHO SOCIAL WELL BEING OF ORPHANS

Abstract

Childhood parental loss, parental separation, poverty and rearing in orphanages newlinehave negative impact on physical, psychological and social well-being in orphans. Yoga has a newlineprofound knowledge base and practical solutions for such traumatic consequences.The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of a yoga program on the physical newlinefitness, psychological and social well-being of adolescents staying in an orphanage.A total of 72 apparently healthy adolescents from an orphanage were randomized newline(based on their age and gender) and allocated into two groups as Yoga Group (YG) (n = 40; newline14 girls, 26 boys, age = 12.69±1.35) and Wait-list Control Group (WLC) (n = 32, 13 girls, 19 newlineboys, age = 12.58±1.52). The YG underwent three months of yoga program in a schedule of newline90 min. per day, four days per week whereas the WLC group underwent day to day activities. newlineAssessment was done in both groups at the beginning and end of the program.The group*time interaction newlineanalysis showed significant (p lt 0.05) positive differences in Flamingo left leg balance newline(FLL), Flamingo right leg balance (FLR), Left hand tapping test (PTL), Right hand tapping newlinetest (PTR), Sit and Reach (SAR), Standing broad jump (SBJ), Sit-ups (SUP), Band arm hand newlinetest (BAH) and Shuttle-run (SHR) in YG compared to WLC group. Within group newlinecomparisons, post-hoc test with Bonferroni adjustment showed significant reduction in FLL newlineand improvement in PTL, SBJ, SUP, LHS and RHS in the both groups whereas significant (p newlinelt 0.001) improvements in FLR, PTR, BAH and SHR were found only in YG. A significant newline(p lt 0.001) decrement was found in SAR in WLC group.Minimum muscular fitness was assessed using the Kraus-Weber test that the percentage of newlinestudents passed in YG were 20 %, and 75 % in pre and post tests respectively whereas newlinepercentages in control group remained the same (40.6%) in both tests. Mc Nemar test shows newlinesignificant differences between pre and post (p lt 0.001) in YG while those in WLC was not newlinesignificant. newline