Who uses yoga and why? Who teaches yoga? Insights from a national survey in New Zealand
Sridhar Maddela
1 * , Stephen Buetow 1 , Ruth Teh 1 , Fiona Moir 1
1
Abstract
Globally, yoga has gained popularity as a health-promoting and disease-prevention discipline. The common health conditions prompting yoga use include musculoskeletal disorders, mental health conditions, asthma, fibromyalgia, arthritis, diabetes, and cancers. Although the therapeutic benefits of using yoga are well documented, little is known about the characteristics of yoga instructors (YIs) and yoga users (YUs) in New Zealand (NZ).
This paper seeks to profile the characteristics of NZ YIs and YUs and explore reasons for yoga use.
Online surveys for YIs and YUs were conducted to collect the sociodemographic characteristics of 84 YIs and 267 YUs. Descriptive statistics were used to determine trends.
The surveys were conducted between September 2020 and February 2021. The YIs were predominantly female (87.1%) with mean ± s.d. years of practice of 9.8 ± 0.8 (95% CI: 8.2, 11.4). YUs were most commonly female (86%), of NZ European descent (63%), aged 45–64 years (56%), not married (52.5%), and with a university or higher education qualification (61.5%). They use yoga to alleviate chronic health conditions like back pain (18%), menopausal symptoms (14.5%), anxiety (13.5%) and depression (11.5%).
Most YIs in NZ are females facilitating moderate-sized yoga classes. YUs in NZ are disproportionately NZ European, female, middle-aged and tertiary educated. They use yoga to help manage long-term conditions, including mental ill-health and musculoskeletal disorders. The study findings could inform health professionals regarding the utilisation of yoga in NZ. Further research is required to gain insights into yoga use.
Keywords: chronic health conditions, mental health, musculoskeletal, New Zealand, reasons for yoga use, women’s health, yoga instructors, yoga users.
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