Demographic, health behavior, and cardiometabolic risk factor profile in yoga and non-yoga participants: NHANES 1999–2006. (June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Forseth, Bethany; Boyer, William; Miller, Amy; Fitzhugh, Eugene C.
• Is Part Of: Complementary therapies in medicine. Volume 44(2019)
• Page Start: 123
• Page End: 128
• Publication Date: 2019-06
• Subjects: Alternative medicine -- Periodicals; Complementary Therapies -- Periodicals; Médecines parallèles -- Périodiques; Thérapeutique -- Périodiques; Alternative medicine; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 615.5
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ctim.2019.04.006
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0965-2299

Abstract

Highlights: Yoga participants were primarily non-Hispanic white, identified as female, educated, and met physical activity guidelines. Yoga participants were more likely to have healthier values for cardiovascular risk factors. Yoga participants were more likely to have lower BMI and waist circumference values compared to non-yoga participants. Abstract: Objective: 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. Design: 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. Results: Yoga participants were primarily female (80.7%), college educated (51.9%), mostly non-smokers (46.9%), and reported moderate alcohol consumption (72.1%). Yoga participants were found to be significantly less likely to have an elevated waist circumference (OR = 0.40, p < 0.01; OR = 0.30, p < 0.01), and a low HDL (OR = 0.43, p = 0.03; OR = 0.34, p < 0.05) compared to both non-yoga participants and inactive individuals, respectively. Yoga participants were 61% less likely to have elevated blood glucose compared to non-yoga participants (OR = 0.39, p < 0.05). Compared to inactive individuals, yoga participants were 52% (OR = 0.48, p < 0.05) and 66% (OR = 0.34, p < 0.05) less likely have an elevated body mass index and have elevated triglyceride levels, respectively. Conclusions: 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. Key Words : complementary medicine, epidemiology, survey, population, physical activity, cardiovascular disease