Patients Older Than 45 Years Who Practice Yoga Are at an Increased Risk of Hip Injuries: A 20-Year Epidemiological...

The objective of this study is to determine the incidence and risk factors of yoga-related injuries to generate guidelines for safely practicing yoga.

The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System was searched from 2004 to 2023 for injury codes including yoga. Narrative descriptions were reviewed by two authors to select entries specifically addressing yoga practice. Descriptive statistics were done, and the Stata svyset function (SE 17.0; StataCorp) was used to calculate national estimates. Athletes were also categorized based on age into <45 years and ≥45 years, and significance between age groups was determined using adjusted Wald tests to compare proportions in the setting of complex weighted survey data.

The initial data search yielded 160,521 entries. The narrative review process (Cohen kappa = 0.76) resulted in 1,615 entries for analysis, corresponding to a national estimate of 63,280 yoga-related injuries. Patients were disproportionately female and White (mean age = 46.5 years, SD = 18.0). Most injuries occurred in places of recreation (42.4%) and the home (10.0%). The most common type of injury was strains/sprains (32.5%). The trunk was the most injured body region (lower trunk = 24.2%, shoulder = 9.0%). In the lower limb region, the knee was most often affected (9.4%). Wald tests revealed that for body region injured, in the <45 category, head injuries contributed to a markedly larger proportion of total injuries (P < 0.005). In the ≥45 category, hip injuries (subset of trunk) contributed to a markedly larger proportion of total injuries (P < 0.001).

Yoga can involve strenuous physical activity resulting in injury, especially strains/sprains. Given that hip injuries contributed to a markedly larger proportion of injuries in patients ≥45 years, athletes in this age range should be counseled about these risks to maximize the safety of all participants.