Efficacy of integrated tele yoga intervention on physiological and psychological variables in asymptomatic COVID-19 positive patients: A Randomized Control Trial

Background: A study was conducted on asymptomatic COVID-19 positive patients admitted in a COVID-19 hospital in Indore, India during first wave of the pandemic. The objective of the study was to assess the efficacy of an integrated tele-yoga intervention as an adjunct to conventional management on physiological, psychological and mindfulness variables.Methods: In a confirmatory randomized control trial, 60 asymptomatic COVID-19 patients in hospital confinement were randomly allocated to experimental and control groups (n=30). The tele-yoga intervention included breathing exercise, pranayama and meditation and delivered over 30 minutes for 7 days to the experimental group while, the control group continued treatment as usual. Assessment of physiological variables & psychological variables was carried out before intervention and on day seven immediately after intervention. Data was analyzed using SPSS (V.16.0). Results: Mann Whitney U test shows that there was a statistically significant difference between groups regarding all variables (p<0.001). The physiological and psychological variables which included Oxygen Saturation (2.07%), Heart Rate (8.21%), Respiratory Rate (10.04%), Systolic Blood Pressure (6.14%), Diastolic Blood Pressure (8.38%), Visual Analog Scale for Stress (62.78 %), Covid-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (68.44 %), and State Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (72.72 %) showed significant changes in the experimental group compared to control group. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that integrated tele-yoga might have therapeutic benefits in improving physiological, psychological, and mindfulness variables in asymptomatic COVID- 19 patients.