Objective: Evaluating the effects of Tai Chi exercise on physical fitness, blood pressure, and perceived health in community-dwelling elderly.
Design: A randomized controlled trial.
Setting: Community-dwelling elderly in Vinh city, Vietnam.
Participants: Ninety-six community-dwelling participants aged 60 to 79 years (68.9 ± 5.1 years) were recruited.
Intervention: SUBJECTS WERE DIVIDED RANDOMLY INTO TWO GROUPS: Tai Chi and Control groups. Participants in the Tai Chi group (aged 69.02 ± 5.16 years) attended a 60-minute Tai Chi practice session twice a week for 6 months. The session consisted of a 15-minute warm-up and a 15-minute cool-down period. The Control group (aged 68.72 ± 4.94 years) maintained routine daily activities.
Outcome measures: The Senior Fitness Test and Short-Form 36® (SF-36®) are primary outcome measures.
Results: After 24 weeks of the Tai Chi training program, the intervention group showed significant decrease in systole of 12 mmHg and heart rate 6.46 bpm. Body mass index and waist-hip ratio were also reduced by 1.23 and 0.04, respectively. The Senior Fitness Test and SF-36 showed significant improvement.
Conclusion: In this randomized controlled trial study, Tai Chi is beneficial to improve systole blood pressure, heart rate, body mass index, waist-hip ratio, perceived health, and physical fitness. Assessment of the effects of Tai Chi may be focused more on chronic disease with a long-term training program in the future.
Keywords: Tai Chi; health; physical fitness.