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

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