Yoga Users More Likely to Be Female, White, Young, and College-educated
Results from a 2002 survey shows that yoga users are predominately Caucasian (85%) and female (76%) with a mean age of 39.5 years.
Researchers from the Division for Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, wanted to characterize yoga users, medical reasons for use, perceptions of helpfulness, and disclosure of use to medical professionals.
To do this, they examined correlates of yoga use for health from cross-sectional survey data from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) Alternative Medicine Supplement. The estimated prevalence from 2002 NHIS of yoga for health was 5.1%, corresponding to more than 10 million adults, the researchers say in an article published July 24 online on the Journal of General Internal Medicine web site.
In addition to finding yoga users to be more likely white, female, and young, the researchers found that musculoskeletal conditions, mental health conditions, severe sprains in the last 12 months, and asthma were independently associated with higher yoga use. Hypertension and chronic obstructive lung disease, on the other hand, were associated with lower use.
Yoga was most commonly used to treat musculoskeletal or mental health conditions, and most users reported yoga to be helpful. A majority of yoga users (61%) felt yoga was important in maintaining health, though only 25% disclosed yoga practice to their medical professional.
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