An epidemiological analysis of yoga-related injury presentations to emergency departments in Australia.

Abstract

<b>Objectives</b>: Despite being considered a low-intensity exercise, concerns have been raised about the risk of injuries associated with yoga. This study aimed to analyze the characteristics and trend of yoga-related emergency department (ED) presentations from July 2009 to June 2016 in Victoria, Australia. <b>Methods</b>: The Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) was used to collect the de-identified data. The data were first analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman's correlation. Further injury trend was analyzed by calculating the percentage change of the number of yoga-related injuries during the 7-year study period. <b>Results</b>: There were 118 yoga-related injury cases that significantly (<i>p</i> < .05) increased by 357% from July 2009 to June 2016. Most of the cases were female (<i>n</i> = 96; 81.4%) and between 20 and 39 years old (<i>n</i> = 68, 57.6%). Most common injuries comprised dislocations/sprains/strains (<i>n</i> = 60, 51.7%) followed by fractures (<i>n</i> = 17, 14.4%), and injury to muscle/tendon (<i>n</i> = 15, 12.7%). <b>Conclusion</b>: The findings warrant future nationwide research as well as an investigation into the risk management strategies of yoga service providers to minimize the risk of injury.