Vergeer, Ineke and Bennie, Jason A. and Charity, Melanie J. and van Uffelen, Jannique G.Z. and Harvey, Jack T. and Biddle, Stuart J.H. and Eime, Rochelle M. (2018) Participant characteristics of users of holistic movement practices in Australia. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 31. pp. 181-187. ISSN 1744-3881
Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the characteristics of users of holistic movement practices in Australia to people who were physically active but not using holistic movement practices. A second aim was to compare characteristics of users of specific holistic movement practices (yoga/Pilates and t'ai chi/qigong).
Design: We performed a secondary data analysis on pooled data of a nationally-representative physical activity survey conducted yearly 2001e2010 (n = 195,926).
Setting: Australia-wide Exercise, Recreation, and Sport Survey (ERASS).
Main outcome measures: A range of socio-demographic and participation characteristics were documented and compared between users and non-users of holistic movement practices and between yoga/Pilates and t'ai chi/qigong users, employing descriptive statistics, chi square, and multiple logistic regression analyses.
Results: Users of holistic movement practices (n = 6826) were significantly more likely than non-users to be female, older, have fewer children at home, and have higher levels of education, socio-economic background, and physical activity involvement (p < 0.001). Yoga/Pilates (n = 5733) and t'ai chi/qigong (n = 947) users were also found to differ on a number of characteristics, including age, sex, socioeconomic background, and marital status.
Conclusion: As a group, Australian users of holistic movement practices differ on a range of characteristics from those Australians active in other types of physical activities. However, differences between yoga/Pilates and t'ai chi/qigong users suggest these practices attract somewhat different subpopulations. To what extent these differences are due to characteristics inherent to the practices themselves or to differences in delivery-related parameters needs to be examined in future research.
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