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April 13, 2020PLoS ONEOpen Access

Yoga in school sports improves functioning of autonomic nervous system in young adults: A non-randomized controlled pilot study

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Key result

A 10-week yoga program in school sports did not significantly improve group-by-time interaction for nocturnal heart rate variability indices compared to conventional sports, though within-group analyses showed increased parasympathetic dominance.

Why the study?

Prior studies demonstrating the benefits of school-taught yoga relied mostly on subjective psychometric data, leaving its effects on autonomic regulation in young adults unassessed using heart rate variability.

Does a 10-week school yoga program improve autonomic regulation measured by heart rate variability in healthy young adults compared to conventional school sports?

Comparison

10-week yoga program vs conventional school sports

Design

Non-randomized explorative two-arm pilot study with active control

Follow-up

10 weeks

Authors

JFJulia FrankGSGeorg SeifertRSRico Schroeder

Discussion

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Member takes

Overview

No evidence to adopt yoga over conventional sports for nocturnal HRV in schools; leaves open hypothesis-generating within-group parasympathetic effects for larger trials.

Structured PICO

Does a 10-week school yoga program improve autonomic regulation measured by heart rate variability in healthy young adults compared to conventional school sports?

P
Population
25 healthy young adults (mean age 19.9 years, 52% female) participating in secondary school sports, evaluated for heart rate variability before and after a 10-week intervention.
I
Intervention
10-week yoga program (90 min once a week) in school
C
Comparator
Conventional school sports (90 min once a week over 10 weeks)
O
Outcome
Heart rate variability (HRV) parameters calculated from linear and nonlinear dynamics during 20-minute nocturnal sleep phases via 24-hour ECGs following the 10-week interventionsurrogate

Main Result

Effect estimate: ωp2 -0.041

p-value: p=0.528

A 10-week school yoga program may increase parasympathetic dominance and overall HRV in young adults compared to regular sports, though interaction effects were not statistically significant in this small pilot study.

Limitations

  • Non-randomized design
  • Small sample size (n=25 for HRV analysis)
  • Daytime ECG data discarded due to artifacts
  • Short intervention duration of 10 weeks
  • Incomplete attendance by some participants
  • Small sample size (pilot study)

Cite This Study

Frank et al. (2020) studied Healthy (n=25). Yoga vs. Conventional school sports (90 min once a week) was evaluated on RMSSD group-by-time interaction (ωp2 -0.041, p=0.528). A 10-week yoga program in school sports did not significantly improve group-by-time interaction for nocturnal heart rate variability indices compared to conventional sports, though within-group analyses showed increased parasympathetic dominance.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a61ba280579a17fd4c91edchttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231299
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