Abstract
BACKGROUND: With coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic, society is gripped with uncertainty and fear, inclining them toward Yoga to prevent mental health issues. Google Trends (GT) depicts the public interest of the community which may vary due to evolving policy dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic. AIM: The aim was to study global public interest in Yoga for mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Global time trends were obtained for Yoga, Anxiety, and Depression from November 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020 using GT. The time series analysis was done in three different time periods - pre-COVID-19 phase, transition period, and COVID-19 pandemic phase. Cross-correlation, Spearman rho, Friedman ANOVA test, and forecasting were used for analysis. RESULTS: GT found a global change in the search queries for Yoga, anxiety, and depression during the three time periods. High burden COVID-19 countries - Italy, Spain, Russia, and Brazil had an increasing search trend for Yoga. During the COVID-19 phase, there was a significant positive correlation between the search trends of Yoga with depression (r = 0.232; P < 0.05) and anxiety (r = 0.351; P < 0.05), but higher anxiety and depression searches lead to lower Yoga searches at lag +6. Forecast projected a continuous increase in Yoga searches and anxiety queries. CONCLUSION: Google Trends captured a significant rise in interest of Yoga among the global community but diminished with time. Hence, the need for interventions to promote Yoga to be part of routine life and for making sure that people adhere to the Yoga practices on a continuous basis.