Iranian Journal of Rehabilitation Research in Nursing

Introduction: Decrease in reaction time is a factor which can interfere with daily living functions and thus reduce the quality of life of middle-aged women. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of eight-Week selected Hatha yoga exercise intervention on auditory and visual reaction time in retired women.

Methods: Subjects included 44 middle-aged women who were randomly divided into two groups of experimental (n = 22) and control (n = 22). The exercise protocol consisted of 24 sessions of progressive Hatha yoga training (thrice a week). The control group did not do any exercise. The reaction time was assessed by ELECTRONIC CHOICE REACTION TIME DEVICE, in pre-, mid- and post-intervention yoga training and data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and analysis of variance with repeated measure (SPSS).

Results: The results showed no significant differences between the two groups, but after the Hatha yoga exercise the experimental group was significantly different in simple and choice reaction time factors (P ≤ 0.05). However, this difference was not significant in the control group (P ≥ 0.05).

Conclusions: The present research showed that yoga exercise could result in decrease in simple, choice and auditory reaction times of old people, which can raise the ability of concentration and attention caused by increased level of awareness towards environment and self through Hatha yoga exercises. Therefore, doing yoga exercises to prevent seniors' falls is recommended.