The Prevalence of Mindfulness Practices in the U.S. Workforce: 2002-2012
Speaker: David Lee, PhD; Christina Fernandez, MS; Henry Olano
Format: Audio & Slides

Objective: To document and compare the prevalence of mindfulness activities in the U.S. workforce.

Methods: Data were pooled from the 2002, 2007, and 2012 Alternative Medicine Supplements in the National Health Interview Survey, an annual cross-sectional multistage probability survey of the non-institutionalized civilian U.S. population. Adult workers who completed the mindfulness questions (n=61,958) were grouped as white-collar, blue-collar, service, and farm worker. Participants were asked if they had participated in various mindfulness activities in the past 12 months; this analysis focused on Meditation, Yoga, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong. The prevalence of these practices were compared using logistic regression with adjustment for survey design, age, gender, race/ethnicity, income, education, and survey year.

Results: The pooled prevalence of the four mindfulness activities ranged between 0.0% and 10.4% across worker groups; yoga was the most common of the four practices among workers (7.8%), the prevalence of which increased significantly over time from 6.3% to 9.1% (p<.0001). With white-collar workers serving as the reference group, the odds of practicing any of the four mindful practices was significantly lower in farm workers (odds ratio=0.44; 95% CI=0.23-0.82), and in blue-collar workers (0.60; 0.53-0.68), but similar in service workers (0.98; 0.88-1.08). Similar patterns of findings were seen for meditation and yoga when analyzed separately.

Conclusions: Mindfulness practices are increasing but vary in the U.S. workforce, with white-collar workers more likely to report such practices. To date, research on the effectiveness of workplace interventions is limited, often focusing on a narrow segment of the workforce (e.g., white-collar workers). Given the possible mental and physical health benefits of these mindfulness practices, it is important to research their possible impacts on those workers at greatest risk, i.e. blue collar and farm workers.