Impact of a Low Cost, Non-Pharmacological Yogic Breathing Technique Intervention on General Women’s Health in India and UK: A Questionnaire-Based Study

Background: Women have increased health care requirements in comparison to men during their lifetime, although there are indications throughout the world that all health and social care needs are not always met.Traditionally it is believed that women suffer more compared to men and this may be in the form of acute transient illnesses, chronic health conditions, and serious functional disabilities.Both men and women may experience stress, this may be felt differently by women in general and there might be geographical variations as well.Therefore this may have a debilitating impact not only on women's mental health but also on physical health e.g.Stress has been linked to increased incidence of menstrual and reproductive health problems in women.The objective of the study is a questionnaire-based study to evaluate the efficacy of a non-pharmacological intervention (Sudarshan Kriya Yoga -yogic breathing technique) to improve the general health of women.Methods: A validated questionnaire, the SF 36 form was used to evaluate the efficacy of a non-pharmacological intervention yogic breathing (Sudarshan Kriya Yoga: SKY) technique on women's general health.The study period was from January 2018 to August 2018 and was conducted in both the UK and India.A total of four hundred and ten (410) women completed the questionnaire before and following the intervention.The statistical package used was MS Excel and a RAND score analysis was performed.Chronbach's alpha test was used to measure internal consistency.