Article Type: Case Study Article Citation: Vikram Singh, Pragyendu Yaduvanshi, and Karan
Singh. (2021). A STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING THE LEVEL OF HAPPINESS AMONGST
PRACTITIONERS OF YOGA, AEROBICS AND WALKING DURING CORONA LOCKDOWN. International
Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH, 9(3), 338-346. https://doi.org/10.29121/granthaalayah.v9.i3.2021.3829 Received Date: 16 March 2021 Accepted Date: 31 March 2021 Keywords: Age Happiness Yoga Aerobics Walking Fitness and Yoga has been the focus of studies in recent decades for the not only the general well-being but also a therapeutic modality for mental stress, obesity, and other lifestyle disorders. Individual studies indicate positive effects of exercises like aerobics, walking and yoga under covid-19 lockdown conditions, suggesting that they can be used as non-pharmacological and as non-invasive interventions or as a supplement to drug therapy for the prevention and treatment of various mental and physical conditions. 120 moderately active healthy males (59) and females (61) volunteered to participate in the survey study with the aim to study the level of happiness and related variables age, body mass index, level of education and choice of physical activity of the participants. Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) developed by psychologists Michael Argyle and Peter Hills at Oxford University was used to collect data. Results showed that there was no statistically significant difference in the choice of activity out of the three namely: aerobics, yoga and walking to stay fit and healthy. The level of happiness was found to be better for those who spent a greater number of years in school/college/university and another finding was that the level happiness was lower amongst the participants who were of more age as compared to the ones who were of lesser age. There was a significant difference in the level of happiness amongst the walkers, aerobic practitioners and yoga practitioners. It was not possible however to point out exactly the magnitude of difference between the three groups because the data was non-parametric. No gender differences were observed amongst males and females on level of happiness on activities chosen by the participants (aerobics, yoga and walking) to stay fit and healthy. Significant differences amongst the participants were observed amongst the underweight, normal weight and overweight participants.
1. INTRODUCTIONIndia is
a country of a large population of youth. As per the World Population
Prospects: The 2015 revision Population Database [1], United Nations Population, in 2010, the
population of people in the youth age group of 15-34 years in Asia was 33.93%
of the total population and is predicted to decline to 31.54% by the end of
2020. The same document says that the share of the youth population (15-34
years) in India in 2010 was 35.11% and is predicted to reduce to 34.46% by 2020
and might decline to 32.26% by 2030. Lifestyle disorders are the two major
causes of concern not only in developed countries but also in developing
nations like India. Dementia, stress, degenerative joint diseases, and respiratory
infections are increasingly becoming common health issues affecting the
children, youth, and the elderly with almost equal magnitude. Various
government and non-government bodies are having a tough time in handling the
lifestyle-related cases vis a vis quality of life, especially during lockdown
due to COVID-19. Different online and offline means and methods are being
adopted to improve and activate people's lifestyles. They include yoga,
exercises, massage, stretching exercises, treadmill walking, etc. Yoga is an
ancient Indian science that enhances physical, mental, social, and spiritual
health. By its peculiarities, asana and pranayama, Yoga found its special
existence not only in India but also in countries like China, Japan USA, etc. Indoor yoga as a more effective alternative
to outdoor exercise has become a compulsion and not a choice during the
covid-19 lockdown in India. Research works on yoga and other happiness-inducing
options were conducted to a certain extent in India. It's necessary to show
that yoga isn't just an exercise system, but it has many mental health
benefits. In youth, it can be wisely applied to improve happiness levels
thereby promoting quality of life. Research is needed to understand yoga's
action mechanism in improving happiness and its other psycho-physiological
correlates. Stress,
tension, anxiety are major factors affecting a person's mental health and
happiness regardless of age, gender, and education level. A low level of
happiness can be an indicator of the onset of the Presentation of stress may
vary from the fight-to-flight phenomenon. Chronic stress is the primary cause
of many physical and mental disorders. Yoga has been used extensively in stress
management. In
studying happiness related changes, age, education level, body mass index, and
choice of activity are some important factors to take into account. Though
there is no age limit for the yoga practice, the effect can vary according to
age. Population-based studies are required to study the effect of yoga on age
to develop a suitable model for different groups as per specific needs. 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS2.1. SUBJECTSIn this study 120 normal healthy volunteers of both the genders
(59 males and 61 females), interested in the study and who were physically
active at least for 5 days a week, 30 minutes a day in doing activities of
their choice for the last at least 6 months were selected. They were divided
into two groups according to gender (males, female), into 3 groups as per
choice of activity (yoga, aerobics, walking), body mass index (BMI)-3
categories (underweight, normal body weight and overweight) as per the
international criteria-based BMI as follows: <18.5 for
underweight, 18.5-24.9 for normal-weight, 25.0-29.9 for overweight..Mean age of the group
was 24.5 and age range was 20 to 31 years. 2.2. INCLUSION CRITERIANo previous medical issue Moderately active at least for 5 days a week, 30 minutes a day in
doing activities of their choice for the last at least 6 months 2.3. EXCLUSION CRITERIABelow 20 years of age and above 31 years of age Elite sports persons Obese persons 2.4. ETHICAL CLEARANCE-NOT APPLICABLEInformed written consent was taken from all the participants to
volunteer for demographic measurements and fill up the questionnaire. 2.5. DESIGN OF THE STUDYIt is a survey study to assess the level of happiness amongst the
moderately active persons living in Delhi, NCR. Total 120 (61 females and 59
males) were assessed on happiness scale. 2.6. METHODSSelected
individuals were asked to submit a written consent from and were willing to
participate in the study. After collecting their demographic details (age,
gender, height, body mass, body mass index, level of education, choice of
activity), the subjects were then given the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire
(OHQ) developed by psychologists Michael Argyle and Peter Hills at Oxford
University. This is a survey study on the participants’ happiness. Happiness
Quotient score of the participants is compared to analyze the differences and
to see. ·
If
the data is normally distributed or not ·
If
the choice of activity will be same for all participants or not. ·
To
find out the correlation between level of happiness and the three independent
variables namely age and education level and choice of activity. The
research hypotheses ((Ho) = null hypothesis, (H1) = alternate
hypothesis)): 1)
Choice
of activity will be same for all the participants (Ho) 2)
There
will be no significant relationship between age and level of happiness (Ho) 3)
There
will be no significant relationship between choice of activity and level of
happiness (Ho) 4)
There
will be no significant relationship between education level and level of
happiness (Ho) 5)
Alternate
hypothesis (H1) will be accepted in case of rejection of Ho as
above. 2.7. ASSESSMENT CRITERIAFor the
purpose of this study, happiness is defined as a mental or emotional state of
wellbeing marked by positive or pleasant emotions that also get reflected in
positive actions. The oxford Happiness Questionnaire was developed by Michael
Argyle and Peter Hills of Oxford Brookes University, and originally published
in 2002 in the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences.[2] It is a measure of subjective well-being or
happiness. This is a self-reporting questionnaire containing 29 items that are
marked from 1 to 6 on the extent to which the participant agrees or disagrees
with the statement. Some of the statements are reversed to nullify participants
‘biases. 2.8. STATISTICAL ANALYSISObtained
data was analyzed statistically using non-parametric tests-Chi-square test and
Spearman rank order correlation to test the hypothesis to further assess the
difference between the groups. SPSS version 25 was being used to perform
statistical analysis. Level of significance was set at P<0.05. 3. RESULTSTable1: Descriptive Statistics
Table-1
shows descriptive statistics of (N=120) participants on mean and standard
deviation of age, body mass index (BMI), level of happiness and level of
education. Age (Mean=24.52 ± 3.06), body mass index (Mean = 12.21 ± 2.40),
level of happiness (4.05± 1.34), level of education (Mean = 15.85 ± 2.42) Table2: Tests of Normality for age, body mass index, level of education and level of happiness
a. Lilliefors Significance Correction Table 2
shows the tests of normality of data. Null hypothesis was that the data will be
normally distributed and alternate hypothesis was that the data will not be
normally distributed. Since the data is large in number, we interpreted the
Kolmogorov-Smirnov values. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov test in table-2 indicates that
neither of the four independent variables namely age, body mass index, level of
education (years of completed education) follows a normal distribution ·
Age
variable does not follow a normal distribution, D (120) = 0.12, p = 0.000. ·
Body
Mass Index (BMI) variable does not follow a normal distribution, D (120) =
0.16, p = 0.000. ·
Level
of education (in years) variable does not follow a normal distribution, D (120)
= 0.20, p = 0.000. ·
Level
of happiness variable does not follow a normal distribution, D (120) = 0.19, p
= 0.000. ·
Null
hypothesis (H0) was
that the age, BMI, level of education and level of happiness will be normally
distributed has been rejected and therefore, the alternate hypothesis has been
accepted. H0: Data are sampled from a normal distribution. Otherwise,
alternate hypothesis (H1) will be accepted. Table 3: Descriptive statistics showing frequencies of choice of activity of participants
As we can see from the Shapiro-Wilk
test value in Table-3, p-value < .001, and so
we reject the null hypothesis and conclude with 99% confidence that the data
are not normally distributed (alternate hypothesis is accepted) Hypothesis: The
null hypothesis (H0) was that the choice of activity will be same
for all the participants. Alternate hypothesis (H1) will otherwise
be accepted. Table 4: Activity choice wise proportion Test (N Outcomes) and χ² Goodness of Fit test for the 3 choice of activities made by the participants
The table 4 provides the actual
result of the chi-square goodness-of-fit test. We can see from this table that
our test statistic is statistically non-significant: χ2(2) =
1.85, p > .05. Therefore, we accept the null hypothesis and
conclude that there are statistically non-significant differences in the choice
of activity, with people equally preferring the "aerobics" (N =
47), walking (N=36) and Yoga (N=37). Null hypothesis (H0)
was that there will not be significant relationship between age, level of education
and level of happiness amongst the participants. Alternate hypothesis (H1)
otherwise will be accepted. Table 5: Non-parametric (NP) correlations between level of education, level of happiness and age variables.
Table 5 shows non-parametric
correlation with Spearman’s rho was used because the data was not normally
distributed. A Spearman's rank-order correlation was run to determine the
relationship between 120 person’s age, level of education and level of
happiness. 1) There was a strong, positive correlation between age and
level of education, which was statistically significant (rs
= .385, p = .000). 2) There was a strong, negative correlation between age and
level of happiness, which was statistically significant (rs
= -.202, p = .027). 3) There was a strong, positive correlation between level of
education and level of happiness, which was statistically significant (rs = .183, p = .045). Table 6: Kruskal-Wallis Test
A Kruskal-Wallis H test (Table 6 and 7)
showed that there was a statistically significant difference in level of
happiness between the different activities being practiced by the participants,
χ2(2) = 20.970, p = 0.000, with a mean rank happiness score of
48.14 for aerobics, 55.24 for walking and 81.32 for Yoga practitioners. Table 8: Kruskal-Wallis Test
Table 9: Test Statisticsa,b
A
Kruskal-Wallis H test (Table-8 and 9) showed that there was a statistically
non-significant difference in level of happiness between the male and female
participants, χ2(1) = .035, p = 0.851, with a mean rank
happiness score of 61.09 for males and 59.93 for females. Table 10: Kruskal-Wallis Test
Table 11: Test Statisticsa,b
A Kruskal-Wallis H test (Table 10 and 11)
showed that there was a statistically significant difference in level of
happiness between the underweight, normal weight range and overweight
participants, χ2(2) = 6.560, p = 0.038, with a mean rank
happiness score of 10.50 for underweight, 58.42 for normal weight range and
68.57 for overweight participants. 5. DISCUSSIONHappiness is a good variable and can be
interpreted for several purposes, for example in terms of country economics,
democracy, equality, health, housing, social security, education, family life
and other personal characteristics. In such a situation, happiness is defined
as reflecting long-term, not just occasional or
everyday emotions.[3] Since the data violated the normality
assumption, therefore non-parametric correlations between level of education,
level of happiness and age variables was being applied. Significant positive
correlation observed between age and level of education suggests that, as we
grow old, there is a greater probability of attaining higher level of education
as displayed by the subjects as the older subjects were found to have attended
the formal system of education for a longer duration of time. Although this was
not the primary objective of the present study, but just information to build
up foreground for further observations about the participants and their
variable analysis. Significant negative correlation between age and level of
happiness suggests that, higher age was associated with low level of happiness
in the subjects despite having spent more time in education system. The effect
of age on happiness, as defined by positive and negative effect, was examined
in a survey of 2,727 persons of a broad age range (25–74) conducted by the
MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development. The
age–affect association was examined, controlling for a host of socio
demographic, personality, and contextual influences. Among women, age was
related to positive affect nonlinearly but was unrelated to negative effect.
Among men, age interacted with 2 key variables in predicting affect:
extraversion and marital status. These findings lend support to recent life
span theories of emotion and indicate that personality, contextual, and socio
demographic variables, as well as their interactions, are all needed to fully
understand the age–effect relationship.[4] A study [5] on “Subjective happiness and health behavior among a sample
of university students in India” tried to establish the associations between
health behaviors and happiness in an Asian (Indian) population in a
cross-sectional survey to happiness and health behavior among a sample of 800
randomly selected university students taking non health (mainly engineering and
sciences) undergraduate courses at Gitam University,
Visakhapatnam in India. The students were 541 (67.6%) males and 259 (32.4%)
females in the age range of 17 to 20 years (M age 18.2 years, SD = 1.0). Their major finding was that better
social support, better personal mastery, normal sleep duration, no current
tobacco use, and eating breakfast daily or almost daily were associated with
happiness. The findings partially confirmed the association between happiness
and several health behaviors mediated by social factors. They suggested that
their study findings can be utilized in programs designed to improve overall
well-being of university students in India. A significant positive correlation between
level of education and level of happiness suggests that, higher the level of
education, better the level of happiness in the subjects since higher the
number scored out of 6, more the happiness that has been observed in the
present study. Happiness is one of the variables that are
related to academic achievement. According to research, the people who have a
high sense of happiness are more active in academic performance and progress of
higher education.[6] A Kruskal-Wallis H test (Table-6 and 7)
showed that there was a statistically significant difference in level of
happiness between the different activities being practiced by the participants.
A study [7] entitled
“YOGA VERSUS AEROBIC EXERCISE IN MENTAL WELL-BEING” evaluated and compared yoga
and aerobic exercise in their effects on promoting mental well-being in college
students. There was a total of 334 participants enrolled in either a yoga or
aerobic type activity course. It was found that there were no significant
differences between activity type and better overall mental well-being
indicated by the Subjective Happiness Scale. In a 2019 study [8], the researchers used self-administered
questionnaires for 79 (median age of 24 years) first year medical
students at the St. George’s University of London medical programme
delivered by the University of Nicosia Medical School in Cyprus. Physical
activity was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire
Short Form and happiness was assessed using the Short Depression Happiness
Scale. Results suggested that the total amount of physical activity performed,
as well as level of happiness, did not significantly differ between genders.
Although the effects of BMI and perceived health on happiness are still largely
unknown, research shows that overweight is significantly related with lower
self-assessments of personal happiness in social groups where overweight is less
common [9]. This
finding indicates that the socio-cultural environment may mediate the effects
of BMI and perceived health on happiness. Some studies show a correlation
between obesity and depression, further depending on the severity of the
obesity (Larsson et al., 2002; Onyike et al., 2003; Groessl et al., 2004).[10],[11],[12] A
Kruskal-Wallis H test (Table-10 and 11) in this study showed that there was a
statistically significant difference in level of happiness between the
underweight, normal weight range and overweight participants 6. CONCLUSIONAll the participants equally preferred
aerobics, yoga and walking as their choice of activity to stay fit and healthy.
As regards level of happiness, it was better for those having higher
qualifications but the level happiness was lower amongst the participants with
higher age. There was a significant difference in level of happiness amongst
the walkers, aerobic practitioners and yoga practitioners. It was not possible
however to point out exactly the magnitude of difference between the three
groups because the data was non-parametric. The males and females were equally
happy with whatever they were doing (out of the three activities namely
aerobics, yoga and walking) to stay fit and healthy. It was also seen that
there was a significant difference amongst the participants who were either
underweight, normal weight or overweight. SOURCES OF FUNDINGThis research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. CONFLICT OF INTERESTThe author have declared that no competing interests exist. ACKNOWLEDGMENTNone. REFERENCES
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