Table 5. Outcome data from included studies.
BAI: Beck anxiety inventory, BPQ: body perception questionnaire, DASS-21: depression, anxiety and stress scale-21, DBP: diastolic blood pressure, EFI: exercise-induced feeling inventory, HRV: heart rate variability, IHG: isometric handgrip, PA: physical activity, PHQ-9: patient health questionnaire-9, PSQI: Pittsburgh sleep quality index, PSS: perceived stress scale, RMSSD: root mean square of successive differences, SBP: systolic blood pressure, SD: standard deviation, SDNN: standard deviation of NN intervals, SQS: sleep quality scale
| Study (author, year) | Outcome domain | Specific measure | Baseline | Post-intervention | Significance/notes |
| Gerbarg et al. (2023) [18] | Psychological | EFI tranquility | - | ↑ | p = 0.005 |
| BPQ supradiaphragmatic reactivity | - | ↓ | p = 0.04 | ||
| SQS (sleep) | - | Trend ↑ | p = 0.06 | ||
| PHQ-9 (depression) | - | Trend ↓ | p = 0.078 | ||
| Muthe et al. (2025) [19] | Psychological (case) | PSS-10 (stress) | 24.6 ± 4.2 | 17.2 ± 3.8 | p < 0.001 |
| BAI (anxiety) | 23.1 ± 5.0 | 15.6 ± 4.2 | p < 0.001 | ||
| Psychological (comparison) | PSS-10 (stress) | 23.9 ± 4.5 | 23.2 ± 4.6 | p > 0.05 | |
| BAI (anxiety) | 22.8 ± 5.3 | 22.1 ± 5.1 | p > 0.05 | ||
| Smitha (2016) [20] | Physiological | Heart rate | Decreased | - | p < 0.05 |
| DBP | Decreased | - | p < 0.05 | ||
| Galvanic skin resistance | Increased | - | p < 0.05 | ||
| HRV (SDNN, RMSSD) | Increased | - | p < 0.05 | ||
| Psychological | PSS (stress) | Decreased | - | p < 0.05 | |
| Other | Auditory threshold (both ears) | Decreased | - | p < 0.05 | |
| Manzoor et al. (2025) [21] | Psychological | DASS-21 stress (yoga) | 34.66 ± 6.21 | 20.23 ± 5.84 | p < 0.001 vs. control |
| DASS-21 stress (PA control) | 28.71 (SD NR) | 25.02 (SD NR) | - | ||
| PSQI sleep (yoga) | 4.77 ± 1.05 | 4.37 ± 0.98 | p = 0.08 (within) | ||
| PSQI sleep (PA control) | 3.96 (SD NR) | 3.00 (SD NR) | p = 0.012 (between, PA superior) | ||
| Nagendrappa et al. (2025) [22] | Psychological | PSS (stress) | 21.62 ± 5.34 | 14.85 ± 4.60 | p < 0.001 |
| Other | Auditory threshold (R) | 7.51 ± 4.08 dB | 5.17 ± 3.22 dB | p < 0.001 | |
| Auditory threshold (L) | 9.23 ± 7.48 dB | 5.70 ± 3.82 dB | p < 0.001 | ||
| Sudhir et al. (2015) [23] | Psychological | PSS (stress) | 21.90 ± 6.08 | 16.37 ± 5.18 | p < 0.001 |
| Other | Overall relaxation % | 58.30 ± 11.46 | 62.90 ± 8.51 | p < 0.005 | |
| Dhanvijay et al. (2018) [24] | Psychological | PSS (stress) | Median: 19 | Median: 14 | p < 0.001 |
| Physiological | Heart rate | 76.88 bpm | 72.67 bpm | p < 0.001 | |
| SBP | 114.2 mmHg | 109.93 mmHg | p < 0.001 | ||
| DBP | 75.60 mmHg | 71.43 mmHg | p < 0.001 | ||
| DBP response to IHG | 19.73 mmHg | 16.67 mmHg | p < 0.001 |