Introduction & Objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a type of progressing and degenerating disease of myelin membrane of nervous cells in the Central Nervous System (CNS) which could cause the incidence of many signs and complications in patients. The disease could affect different aspects of an individual’s life and disturb his/her normal life. This study was carried out in order to survey the effect of yoga exercise on general health status (GHS) and sense of life in patients with multiple sclerosis.
Materials & Methods: This research was a clinical trial study carried out at Yasouj University of Medical Sciences on 60 female patients with multiple sclerosis from Kohgiloyeh and Boyerahmad province in 2009.The data collecting tool consisted was MSQoL-54 questionnaire contained demographic information of patients. Patients were randomly divided into two control and case groups (30 persons in each group). Then, the general health status (GHS) and sense of life of the subjects were evaluated. Yoga therapy was done in the case group for three months and each month included eight sessions of 1-1.5 hours while no intervention was carried out on the control group. One month after Yoga therapy, the general health status (GHS) and sense of life for both groups were evaluated and compared with each other. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive tests, statistical independent t-test and paired t-test by the SPSS software.
Results: The mean age of samples was 31.6±8.0 with the range of 18-45 years. Forty two (70%) of the subjects were married and 18 (30%) were single. Forty four (73.3%) had high school education and 16 (26.6%) had a university degree. Regarding occupation, most of them (63.3%) were housewives. Results of the study showed that after Yoga therapy, the mean rate of general health status (GHS) and sense of life as a whole had significant statistical difference between two groups (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Yoga has improved the general health status (GHS) and sense of life of multiple sclerosis patients in our study. Considering the less cost, feasibility and rapid learning of Yoga techniques, the training of doing such exercise to patients with multiple sclerosis is recommended.
Najafi doulatabad S, Nouryan K, Malekzadeh G, Ghaem H, Roozitalab M, Afraseyabifar A, et al . Effect of Yoga Exercise on General Health Status (GHS) and Sense of Life in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis. armaghanj 2011; 16 (3) :245-253 URL: http://armaghanj.yums.ac.ir/article-1-351-en.html