tailieunhanh - The effect of Qigong on general and psychosocial health of elderly with chronic physical illnesses: a randomized clinical trial

The general picture is that older people of today are healthier than older people of two decades ago. There have been improvements in most dimensions of health. People live longer and have fewer disabilities, have less functioning loss, and report themselves to be in better health. Over time there has been some reduction in risk from smoking and a lowering of cholesterol and average triglyceride levels. However, weight increase has been notable during this period. Because people live longer, a greater percentage of people have some specific common diseases, and, on average, older people live with more diseases. The decade of the 1990s was not one of improvement. | INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2003 18 441-449. Published online in Wiley InterScience . DOI The effect of Qigong on general and psychosocial health of elderly with chronic physical illnesses a randomized clinical trial Hector W. H. Tsang1 C. K. Mok2 Y. T. Au Yeung2 and Samuel Y. C. Chan3 1Department of Rehabilitation Sciences The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong 2Tuen Mun Hospital Hong Kong 3Haven of Hope Nursing Home Hong Kong SUMMARY Objectives Based on the model by Tsang et al. 2002 which summarized the etiological factors and consequences of depression in elderly with chronic physical illnesses a randomized clinical trial of a special form of Qigong The Eight Section Brocades was conducted to assess if it improved the biopsychosocial health of participants. Design 50 geriatric patients in sub-acute stage of chronic physical illnesses were recruited and randomly assigned into the intervention and control group. The intervention group was given a 12-week period of Qigong practice while the control group was given traditional remedial rehabilitation activities. Results The intervention group participants expressed improvement in physical health ADL psychological health social relationship and health in general as reflected by scores of the Perceived Benefit Questionnaire and informal feedback. Conclusion Although results are not significant in the generalization measures it may be due to small effect size small sample size and short intervention period. Although not all of the hypotheses are supported this report shows that Qigong the Eight Section Brocades is promising as an alternative intervention for elderly with chronic physical illness to improve their biopsychosocial health. More systematic evaluation with larger sample size and longer period of intervention is now underway in Hong Kong. Results will be reported once available. Copyright 2003 John Wiley Sons Ltd. .