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Effectiveness of a community-based Tai Chi program and implications for public health initiatives

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Abstract

Jones AY, Dean E, Scudds RJ. Effectiveness of a community-based Tai Chi program and implications for public health initiatives. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2005;86: 619–25.

Objectives

To establish whether the reported beneficial physiologic effects of Tai Chi when performed under stringent experimental conditions can be generalized to the community.

Design

Phase 1: pre-post comparison in a group inexperienced in Tai Chi. Phase 2: baseline comparison between inexperienced and experienced Tai Chi groups.

Setting

A community in Hong Kong.

Participants

Phase 1: 51 subjects inexperienced in Tai Chi (novice group) participated in the program. Phase 2: baseline measures of the novice group were compared with those of an experienced group (n=49) who had practiced Tai Chi for at least 6 months.

Intervention

A Cheng 119 style program was taught by a Tai Chi master for 1.5 hours, 3 times weekly, for 12 weeks.

Main outcome measures

Lung function and physical activity evaluated before and after the completion of the program. Resting heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, handgrip strength, flexibility, and balance measured at the program commencement, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks.

Results

Phase 1: after the program, the novice group had increased handgrip strength, flexibility, and peak expiratory flow rate. Phase 2: the experienced group had greater flexibility, lower resting heart rate but higher diastolic blood pressure than the novice group prior to training.

Conclusions

A community-based Tai Chi program produces beneficial effects comparable to those reported from experimental laboratory trials of Tai Chi; therefore, it should be considered as a public health strategy.

Section snippets

Community initiative

Because the evaluation of the Tai Chi program was a collaborative initiative between a residents’ association in Hong Kong and the university, all components of the study were based at the offices of the association, and in the building estates they administered. Thus, established field tests were selected so that these could be conducted at the residents’ association office for the convenience of the participants, and also to facilitate community involvement and participation of the residents’

Baseline comparisons

In phase 1, which consists of the pre- and posttraining comparison of the novice practitioners, 60 subjects (50 women, 10 men) registered for the program. Table 1 summarizes the descriptive and health status of the subjects in both the novice group, who signed up for the 12-week Tai Chi program, and the experienced control group, who were assessed at baseline for comparison with the novice group. Phase 2 consisted of the baseline comparison between the novice practitioners and the experienced

Community and laboratory-based Tai Chi programs: comparison of physiologic effects

To date, no previous study has assessed in detail the effects of Tai Chi taught to inexperienced practitioners in a community-based program. Compared with many laboratory studies that have examined a limited range of variables related to strength, flexibility, or cardiovascular responses, we studied several variables that crossed physiologic systems using common, established field tests.

Exercise generally has little effect on lung function other than variables that are effort dependent. The

Conclusions

Tai Chi learned in a community-based program (performed for 1.5h, 3 times weekly, for 12wk) provides many of the same physiologic benefits reported by researchers doing controlled, laboratory-based, scientific studies. Despite the variability in intensity inherent in the complex, coordinated movements of Tai Chi and the less tightly controlled practice schedule, the results of our community-based study were comparable to reports from the laboratory. We conclude that Tai Chi is feasible and

Acknowledgment

We gratefully acknowledge Lai Chun Hei and Wilson Lam Wai Shun, research assistants for this project, who helped coordinate data collection and collect the data, as well as perform preliminary data analysis. We also gratefully acknowledge Lau Wai Wing, Vice-Chairman of District Council, Hung Hom and Kowloon City District; Miss Cheung, secretary of the Whampoa Residence Association, Hung Hom; and the Tai Chi Masters, Ms. Lee, Mr. Yau, and Mr. Lau for their untiring support of this project.

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    Supported by an Area of Strategic Development grant awarded by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

    No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the author(s) or on any organization with which the author(s) is/are associated.

    1

    Dean was affiliated with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University at the time of this study

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    Copyright © 2005 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.