Is yoga considered exercise within systematic reviews of exercise interventions? A scoping review

Abstract

Objective: Yoga is an increasingly popular choice of exercise for the Western population, with people engaging in yoga for a range of physical and mental health and well-being reasons. The aim of this scoping review is to examine whether yoga is considered an exercise modality within relevant leading journals, as evidenced by its consideration in systematic reviews (SRs) of exercise interventions for health-related outcomes.

Methods: Design: Scoping review.

Data sources: Three leading sources (Sports Medicine, British Journal of Sports Medicine and Cochrane Collaboration) were searched. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies: The ten most recently published systematic reviews of exercise interventions for health-related outcomes from each journal were included (N = 30) that met these criteria: systematic review studying humans participating in general exercise and measuring a health-related outcome. Exercise interventions with any specific qualifying terms (e.g. aquatic, strength, aerobic) were excluded.

Results: The articles retrieved were published between 2007 and 2019, and collectively included 991 interventions. Seven reviews explicitly stated that yoga was to be included/excluded while twenty-three studies made no mention of how yoga was being considered in the methodology. Five studies included yoga in the search strategy, implying its inclusion. Post-hoc analyses found that the definitions of exercise in general were also variable. Exercise definition specificity was not associated with whether or not yoga was assessed for inclusion.

Conclusions: Systematic reviews of exercise and physical activity interventions for health-related outcomes do not consistently make clear whether or not they include or exclude yoga as a form of exercise.

Keywords: Alternative and complementary medicine; Exercise medicine; Exercise science; Methodology; Yoga.