Effects of yoga on mental health in university students: Protocol for a systematic review

Abstract Background College students are more likely to develop symptoms of mental disorders and lose quality of life due to the competitive environment and high demands for performance. The consequences of high levels of stress, symptoms of anxiety, depression and low quality of life during undergraduate studies can lead to increased consumption of psychotropic medications, substance abuse and low academic and professional performance. A growing body of evidence points to non-pharmacological strategies as a possibility to address this problem, and the practice of Yoga is one of the possibilities. Therefore, the objective of this review is to verify the effects of the practice of Yoga on the variables anxiety, perceived stress and quality of life in college students. Design: Systematic review and possibility of meta-analysis. Methods The study will be conducted by two independent reviewers on the basis of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) rules. Searches will be performed in the PEDro, LILACS, Web of Science, and PUBMED search engines. The searches begin in the second half of 2024, starting in September. Studies published between 2014 and 2024 with an experimental design in English, Spanish, or Portuguese will be included. The methodological quality assessment will be performed via the Revised Tool for Risk of Bias in Randomized Trials (RoB 2 tool). If possible on the basis of the results found, a random-effects meta-analysis by DerSimonian and Laird will be applied to calculate pooled relative risks for binary data and pooled weighted mean differences or standardized mean differences for continuous data. Discussion We hope that this review contributes to the discussion and creation of intra-academic actions to promote a healthier and more productive university environment. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO, CRD42024506075.