The effectiveness of yoga therapy to reduce the level of depression among elderly in the community

Background : Depression is one of the most common diseases among the elderly. Depression indicates disturbances in mood, physical and cognitive symptoms. Depression symptoms related to mood disorders include sadness, loss of interest in activities, worthlessness, and death, and suicidal thoughts. Early detection of depression in elderly can be noticed if the elderly have been known to possess factors that may cause depression. Yoga is a non-pharmacological therapy used to treat depression. Yoga movements consist of three stages, pranayama (breath control), asana (body temperature), and meditation (relaxation of the mind), these movements are very important to overcome stress and depression problems. Objectives : To purpose the effectiveness of yoga therapy in reducing depression in the elderly in the community. Methods : This research uses the quantitative research method with quasi-experimental  with pre-test post-test design without control. The research site was in Gedongan Village, Baki Sub district, Sukoharjo, Central Java, in March-May 2021, with a total of 47 elderly using the purposive sampling method. Inclusion criteria include 60 years old, GDS score minimum 5, no extremity disorders, and Muslim. Screening for depression employed the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). The media used were videos and booklets, using Islamic religious classical music and data analysis used the Wilcoxon test. Results : The average depression level of respondents during the pre-test was 8.40 while the post-test decreased to 4.77 or a mean difference of 3.63 with a p-value of 0.001 (p <0.05). Yoga therapy and breathing program have a remarkable and refreshing effect.  Conclusion : The conclusion is that the level of depression in the elderly resulted in a higher pre-test average value than the post-test value, which means that the level of depression after yoga therapy has decreased

The impact of global mind set on firm international performance: an empirical study on sports SMEs of Pakistan

The empirical study on small and medium enterprises related to sports products manufacturing investigates the relationship between global mind set and firm international performance by following 320 firms which are operating for over 10 years.A keen focus of this study is to check major dimensions of global mind set the intellectual intelligence and cultural intelligence with firm international performance. The author developed a framework and adapts a questionnaire to test it empirically through the owners/managers of small and medium enterprises of sports industry of Pakistan.The findings indicated that the cultural intelligence and intellectual intelligence are the main drivers of global mind set that are closely interrelated with firm international performance.At the end limitations and suggestions for future research are provided

Evaluating the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on SME's performance

The Sports industry has played a vital role in the economy of Pakistan.The recent high failure rate of small and medium businesses in the sports sector has necessitated the need to identify strategies that will help to improve their performance.The primary objective of this study is to establish the level of entrepreneurial orientation of small and medium enterprises in the sports sector of Pakistan.Simple random sampling method was used to gather 153 usable questionnaires from small and medium businesses in Sialkot, Pakistan.An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the validity of the measuring instrument.Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated to assess the reliability of the measuring instrument.Multiple regression analysis was performed to analyze the hypothesized relationships. The results of this study have shown that the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (i.e., pro-activeness, innovativeness, and competitive aggressiveness) have a significant positive influence on the success of the business, whereas the dimensions (i.e., autonomy and risk-taking) have no influence. The study has implications for both researchers and small and medium business owners

Cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes mortality burden of cardiometabolic risk factors from 1980 to 2010: A comparative risk assessment

Background: High blood pressure, blood glucose, serum cholesterol, and BMI are risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and some of these factors also increase the risk of chronic kidney disease and diabetes. We estimated mortality from cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes that was attributable to these four cardiometabolic risk factors for all countries and regions from 1980 to 2010. Methods: We used data for exposure to risk factors by country, age group, and sex from pooled analyses of population-based health surveys. We obtained relative risks for the effects of risk factors on cause-specific mortality from meta-analyses of large prospective studies. We calculated the population attributable fractions for each risk factor alone, and for the combination of all risk factors, accounting for multicausality and for mediation of the effects of BMI by the other three risks. We calculated attributable deaths by multiplying the cause-specific population attributable fractions by the number of disease-specific deaths. We obtained cause-specific mortality from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors 2010 Study. We propagated the uncertainties of all the inputs to the final estimates. Findings: In 2010, high blood pressure was the leading risk factor for deaths due to cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes in every region, causing more than 40% of worldwide deaths from these diseases; high BMI and glucose were each responsible for about 15% of deaths, and high cholesterol for more than 10%. After accounting for multicausality, 63% (10·8 million deaths, 95% CI 10·1-11·5) of deaths from these diseases in 2010 were attributable to the combined effect of these four metabolic risk factors, compared with 67% (7·1 million deaths, 6·6-7·6) in 1980. The mortality burden of high BMI and glucose nearly doubled from 1980 to 2010. At the country level, age-standardised death rates from these diseases attributable to the combined effects of these four risk factors surpassed 925 deaths per 100 000 for men in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia, but were less than 130 deaths per 100 000 for women and less than 200 for men in some high-income countries including Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, and Spain. Interpretation: The salient features of the cardiometabolic disease and risk factor epidemic at the beginning of the 21st century are high blood pressure and an increasing effect of obesity and diabetes. The mortality burden of cardiometabolic risk factors has shifted from high-income to low-income and middle-income countries. Lowering cardiometabolic risks through dietary, behavioural, and pharmacological interventions should be a part of the global response to non-communicable diseases. Funding: UK Medical Research Council, US National Institutes of Health. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

Governing Islam and regulating Muslims in Singapore's secular authoritarian state

  Governance of Islam in Singapore has been strongly shaped by the authoritarian state\u27s micro-management of nation-building, commanding influence of Islamic institutions such as the peak religious bureaucracy MUIS (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura or Islamic Religious Council) and reliance on draconian legislation such as the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act (MRHA), Sedition Act and the Internal Security Act (ISA). Inter alia, these Acts are geared towards curbing the politicisation of religion by attempting to separate religion from politics, regulate religious activity, restrain the development of an autonomous Muslim civil society. The efficacy of the MRHA and no-tudung (headscarf) policy is analysed in the context of the ‘othering’ of the Muslim community and the denial of their localised socio-economic and political grievances in motivating some to support radical Islamist ideology in the era of the ‘war on terror’