Understanding the Barriers to Implementing Tele-Yoga Intervention for Stress Management in Post-Graduate University Students: A Qualitative Study.

Context: Healthy lifestyle practices among young adults are vital in preventing the deterioration of quality of life and mental health disorders. Tele-yoga can be a tool to reduce stress and promote healthy lifestyle behaviors but there are barriers to its wide-scale applications.

Aim: This study aims to identify barriers to implementing tele-yoga intervention for stress management among post-graduate university students studying management in Bengaluru, India.

Settings and design: 55 university students, aged 20 - 30 years, who dropped out within one month from a free 45-minute tele-yoga program offered by the college were enrolled. Out of these dropouts, 38 consenting participants were interviewed individually to understand the barriers to completing tele-yoga program.

Methods: A qualitative study was designed with an individual one-on-one interview to gain an in-depth understanding of barriers to tele-yoga practice. A thematic representation of the discussion was arrived at. The barrier score for each concern was computed by adding the count of responses which was then converted to percentile.

Results: Out of 12 barriers, stress due to exams (34%) was the top-most barrier followed by time constraints (26%), network issues (9%), issues waking up in the morning (7%), and space constraints (7%).

Conclusion: Barriers to implementing tele-yoga intervention for stress management are predominant among young adults. Future tele-yoga studies in this population should consider addressing these barriers.