How Many People Are Practicing Qigong and Mind-Body Exercises in the U.S.?

How Many People Are Practicing Qigong and Mind-Body Exercises in the U.S.?

In order to estimate the number of people who are using various complementary and alternative medicine therapies in the United States, the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (an annual household health survey by CDC) included a special Alternative Health/Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) supplement to the Sample Adult Core component, and the Family Core component. The supplemental questionnaire included questions of 27 types of CAM therapies commonly used in the U.S., and Qigong is one of them.

A total of 31,044 adults age 18 years and over were interviewed with this CAM supplement, representing a sample adult response rate of 74.3%. According to the recent report based on this survey, about 950,000 American adults have ever practiced qigong in their life (about 0.5%), and 527,000 (0.3%) practiced qigong in the past 12 months.

As you can see in Table 1, the next category close to
qigong is Tai chi (the movement form of qigong), about 5 millions Americans (2.5%) ever
practiced Tai Chi, and half of them did so in the past 12 months.

Table 1. Frequencies and percents of adults 18 years and over who used complementary
and alternative medicine by type of therapy: United States, 2002 Qigong is really a broad Chinese term that covers a variety of energy therapies and mind-body exercises.

All the meditations and mind-body integrative energy exercises could be called
qigong in China. For example, Reiki was originated from one of Chinese medical qigong
traditions, and Zen is one of the major Buddhism qigong traditions. Yoga could be called Indian qigong or Buddhism qigong in China…. In the broad sense, we may include Reiki, Yoga, meditation and deep breathing exercise all into this category of mind-body energy exercise, which will yield a much larger proportion of users or practitioners in the U.S., about 15 to 20% of the population practices one form or other in the past year (Note: these categories are not exclusive to each other, and many people practiced more than one form).
Given the data were collected almost 4 years ago, the numbers are most likely out of date already in 2006.

According to a comparison study between the 2002 NHIS and the 1997 national survey
of CAM use, the proportion of use Yoga was among the fastest growing group, increased by
40%. Therefore, we have good reason to believe that the actual numbers of people who practice Ever Used Used past 12 monthsTherapy Type Number in thousands Percent(s.e)

Number in thousandsPercent (s.e.) Qigong in Narrow SenseQigong 950 0.5 (0.05) 527 0.3 (0.04) Tai Chi 5,056 2.5 (0.11) 2,565 1.3 (0.08)Qigong in Broad SenseEnergy healing therapy/Reiki 2,264 1.1 (0.07) 1,080 0.5 (0.05) Yoga 15,232 7.5 (0.19) 10,386 5.1 (0.16)
Meditation 20,698 10.2 (0.23) 15,336 7.6 (0.20) Deep breathing exercise 29,658 14.6 (0.27) 23,457 11.6 (0.24)2

mind-body energy exercises today are much higher than the numbers estimated in the 2002
NHIS in Table 1.

Who were those people who practiced the mind-body energy exercises? Table 2 presents the
demographic characteristics of those who used selected mind-body therapies.

Table 2. Age-adjusted percents of adults 18 years and over who used selected
complementary and alternative medicine categories during the past 12 months, by selected
characteristics: United States, 2002.

Any use of – Selected Characteristic Mind-body therapies excluding prayer Energy therapies
/ReikiTotal 16.9 (0.31) 0.5 (0.05)Sex Male 12.5 (0.36) 0.3 (0.06)
Female 21.1 (0.42) 0.7 (0.08)
Age
18-29 years 17.7 (0.62) 0.4 (0.09)
30-39 years 18.3 (0.57) 0.6 (0.11)
40-49 years 18.9 (0.59) 0.7 (0.12)
50-59 years 19.6 (0.67) 0.8 (0.16)
60-69 years 14.4 (0.70) 0.4 (0.13)
70-84 years 9.4 (0.58) 0.1 (0.06)
85 years and over 6.4 (1.14) 0.3 (0.18)
Race
White, single race 17.0 (0.35) 0.5 (0.06)
Black or African American, single race 14.7 (0.69) 0.3 (0.11)
Asian, single race 20.9 (1.67) 0.6 (0.27)
Education
Less than high school 8.0 (0.46) 0.2 (0.06)
High school graduate/GED 12.4 (0.46) 0.3 (0.08)
Some college – no degree 19.1 (0.60) 0.7 (0.12)
Associate degree 20.2 (0.92) 0.5 (0.17)
Bachelor degree 25.0 (0.79) 0.9 (0.17)
Graduate degree 26.5 (1.55) 1.6 (0.67)
Family income
Less than $20,000 14.8 (0.58) 0.4 (0.12)
$20,000-$34,999 16.9 (0.66) 0.5 (0.15)
$35,000-$54,999 17.9 (0.64) 0.6 (0.11)
$55,000-$74,999 18.2 (0.84) 0.4 (0.13)
$75,000 or more 20.7 (0.74) 0.7 (0.12)

Basically, females were more likely to use CAM energy therapies than males; people in middle
age (age 30 to 60) were more likely to use energy therapies than young or older groups;
education and family income are both positive correlated with probability of use mind-body
energy therapies.

REFERENCES:
Barnes PM, et al. Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use among Adults: United States,
2002. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics. Advance
Data, No.343, May 27, 2004.
Tindle HA, Davis RB, Phillips RS, Eisenberg DM, Trends in use of complementary and
alternative medicine by US adults: 1997-2002. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.
2005; 11(1): 42-49.