WEDNESDAY, June 12, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Nearly 1 in 6 U.S. adults has participated in the ancient practice of yoga in the past year, new government data shows.
In fact, as Americans increasingly turn to alternative or complementary health methods, “the largest increases [han sido] in yoga practice,” noted researchers Nazik Elgaddal and Julie Weeks. They work at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC)
Their new report is based on 2022 data from the ongoing National Health Interview Survey.
According to the data, yoga remains more popular among women (23.3% who report using it in the past year) than men (10.3%).
It is also more popular among young people (18 to 44 years old), with 21.3% in that age group saying they practiced yoga, than among the middle-aged (14.1%) or those aged 65 or more (8%).
Wealthy people are also more likely to practice yoga than less wealthy people. Overall, 23% of people in the highest income group in the survey said they practiced yoga versus 10.4% of people in the lowest income level.
As for why Americans engage in the ancient Indian practice, about 80 percent of yoga practitioners cited “restoring overall health,” the CDC team found. This was especially true for people ages 45 to 64.
Meditation is often done alongside yoga: just over 57% of all practitioners said they meditate as part of their yoga practice. People with lower incomes were more likely to participate in meditation and yoga together, compared to better-off people, the data showed.
Pain relief was another reason cited by many of those who practiced yoga: About 29 percent said they practiced yoga to help “treat or manage pain,” the survey found.
Again, low-income people who practiced yoga were more likely to say they used the practice to relieve pain compared to higher-income people.
The findings were published June 12 as an NCHS data summary.
More information
There is more information about the possible health benefits of yoga at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
SOURCE: NCHS Data Summary, June 12, 2024
