Investigating the relationship between coronavirus anxiety and nutritional behavior in elderly women exercising yoga

The spread of the corona virus disease (Covid-19) in 2019 as a global epidemic caused a disruption in the natural process of human life and resulted in physical and mental disorders and many deaths. Although the role of proper diet and regular physical activity in improving many diseases has been reported. However, the role of these two interventions in preventing anxiety caused by the corona virus is not yet known. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between anxiety of the coronavirus and nutritional behavior in elderly women exercising yoga.

In this causal comparative and post-event study, 120 elderly women practicing yoga were selected as a statistical sample, and after explaining the benefits of the research, questionnaires on coronavirus anxiety and nutritional behavior were distributed among subjects and were collected after completing them. For the inferential analysis of the findings, Spearman's correlation coefficient was used in SPSS/16 software with the significance level of P ≥ 0.05.

There is no significant relationship between nutritional behavior and mental symptoms of coronavirus anxiety (P=0.94). However, there is a significant negative relationship between nutritional behavior and physical symptoms of coronavirus anxiety (P=0.01), which means that with the increase in nutritional behavior, the amount of physical symptoms of coronavirus anxiety decreases. Discussion and

It seems that proper nutrition reduces physical anxiety caused by the epidemic of the Covid-19 disease; however, more research is needed in relation to the psychological, cultural and economic aspects of the communities involved in this issue.