Research Area
Demographic, health behavior, and cardiometabolic risk factor profile in yoga
Research Title
Demographic, health behavior, and cardiometabolic risk factor profile in yoga and non-yoga participants
Introduction
Yoga is a form of physical and spiritual activity that has been practiced for a few thousand years in Eastern cultures. Yoga became popular in the United States during the 1970’s. Presently, over 20 million adults in the U.S. practice yoga and it has been a top 10 fitness trend for the last six years. Many individuals practice yoga for health promotion or health maintenance and believe that regular participation will result in improved health and well-being. Interventions have been conducted to examine the impact of yoga on cardiometabolic risk factors such as glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin levels (HbA1c) blood pressure, total cholesterol, and mental health. While many of these studies do show positive results, some have not shown significant health improvements after a yoga intervention.
Abstract
To examine and compare the demographic, health behavior, and cardiometabolic risk factor characteristics of participants who report 1) participating in yoga, 2) not participating yoga, or 3) are inactive, using a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults.Study participants were from the 1999–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) who self-reported participation in yoga (n = 74), no-yoga (n = 3,753) or were inactive (n = 1,285). Participants in the no-yoga group did engage in other types of physical activity, while the inactive group reported no activity during the survey period.
Conclusion
Given the emergence of yoga as a common form of physical activity, it is imperative to understand the characteristics of those who participate in yoga to further understand its relationship with cardiovascular risk. This study was one of the first to use nationally-representative data and objectively measured cardiometabolic variables.
