Benefits, barriers and determinants of practicing yoga: A cross sectional study from Kathmandu, Nepal

BACKGROUND: It has been widely believed that practicing yoga helps to improve individuals’ mental and physical health. However, the proportion of people practicing yoga is not encouraging. OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the determinants, motivations, benefits and barriers to practicing yoga. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study is based on a cross sectional survey of 875 individuals in a face-to-face interviews conducted from February to April 2019 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The interviews were conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire, and the statistical analysis of the collected data was done using SPSSV20. RESULTS: We find that females, older people, people with access to health education and internet, associated with social organization, and receiving yoga-related training are more likely to practice yoga. Major reported benefits of yoga include improvement in body flexibility and balance, a decrease in the level of stress, improvement in the quality of life, body weight maintenance, and improvement in immunity power. CONCLUSION: Given that most respondents have been benefited from practicing yoga, we recommend people to incorporate yoga into their daily routine.