Abstract

Background:Manipur, a conflict-ridden state in the north-eastern region of India is currently facing geopolitics led conflict adversely affecting the mental aspect of health. Prevalence of mental health problems in university students has been rising in the past decade. Mind-body medicine is found beneficial in improvement of mental aspect of health in different populations. Meditation is one of the potent tools in mind-body medicine that enhances total health. No study has been conducted on the effect of Preksha meditation on quality of life and resilience in female university students. Methods: Thirty-four female university students were recruited to the study. They were allocated to the experimental and control group using lottery method after baseline assessment of quality of life and resilience. The experimental group received Preksha meditation for 30 minutes per session 6 days a week for 8 weeks, while the control group continued with their usual routine. Post assessments were collected after the intervention period. Student’s t test was used to measure the change in mean with significant p-value at 0.05 using Jeffreys's Amazing Statistics Program (JASP). Result: There was significant difference in the QOL-BREF scores of domains 1, 2, 3 and total with p-value of 0.01,0.005, 0.04 and 0.003. There was slight improvement but not significant difference in scores of QOL domain 3 with p-value of 0.13. BRS scores improved significantly post intervention with pvalue of 0.01 while pre-intervention scores were not significantly different with p-value of 0.92. Conclusion: Preksha meditation improves resilience and quality of life in female university students. Thus, it can be a useful tool for enhancement of mental aspect in female university students.

Key words: Mental health, Preksha meditation, quality of life, resilience, university students, women, Yoga