Adding Yoga to Physical Activity Guidelines Reduces Mortality Risk Compared With Meeting Guidelines Alone

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Preventive Medicine

Background:

• Examined yoga's impact on all-cause mortality risk using a large, nationally representative US health survey.
• Investigated associations between yoga practice and mortality in adults.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if yoga participation modifies the association between physical activity guidelines adherence and mortality.
• Assessed the independent and combined effects of yoga and physical activity on mortality risk.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the National Health Interview Survey (2007-2017) with mortality follow-up through 2019 (N=26,055, 815 deaths).
• Categorized participants based on yoga practice and meeting physical activity (PA) guidelines (≥150 min/wk aerobic, ≥2 d/wk strength training).
• Employed Cox proportional hazard models to calculate hazard ratios for mortality across four groups: inactive/no yoga, inactive/yoga, active/no yoga, active/yoga.

Main Results:

• The active/yoga group showed a 51% lower mortality risk compared to the active/no yoga group (HR: 0.49).
• Individuals inactive and not practicing yoga had a 77% higher mortality risk compared to the active/no yoga group (HR: 1.77).

Conclusions:

• Yoga participation may offer additional, independent mortality benefits beyond meeting physical activity guidelines.
• Combining yoga with adherence to PA guidelines appears to provide synergistic protective effects against mortality.