Development of a Novel Tool to Assess the Impact of Yoga and Nutrition Practices on the Health of Rural Women

Abstract

Yoga and nutrition are two main holistic approaches that are considered as the path to good health. This study aims to develop a validated questionnaire and find the efficacy of sustainable yoga and nutrition practices (pre- and post-study) for women's well-being among rural populations in Manesar, Gurugram, Haryana. The questionnaire includes various attributes like health and wellness, community building, empowerment through skill development, nutrition and dietary patterns, yoga, and nutrition including dietary history. All the items were evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from a score of 5 corresponding to excellent, and a score of 1 corresponding to very poor. 50 subjects were carefully chosen from Manesar for the pilot study. The scores were analyzed for the questionnaire’s reliability and validity. The questionnaire's reliability was measured using Cronbach’s alpha using SPSS version 29.0. It was found to be 0.864, indicating a high level of correlation between different questionnaire items, and is consistently reliable. The final questionnaire had 45 questions whose Content validity Index (CVI) score was more than 0.8 and the rest 15 were discarded based on their CVI score of less than 0.8 resulting in a valid and reliable questionnaire. The questionnaire went through demanding development to ensure it had valid and reliable properties. This questionnaire is proposed to help in checking the efficacy of sustainable yoga and nutrition practices on the overall health of women.