Effects of Tai Chi Exercise on Physical and Mental Health of College Students

Abstract

The purpose of this pilot study is to examine the effects of Tai Chi Quan, a body-mind harmony exercise, on college students' perceptions of their physical and mental health. A three-month intervention of Tai Chi exercise was administered to college students, and multidimensional physical (PHD) and mental (MHD) health scores were assessed using the SF-36v2 health survey questionnaire before and after the intervention. Thirty college students participated in a 1-hour-long Tai Chi exercise intervention twice a week for 3 months. Each practice session included 10 minutes of breathing and stretching exercises followed by 50 minutes of Tai Chi Quan 24-form practice. PHD including physical function (PF), role physical (RP), bodily pain (BP), general health (GH), and MHD including social function (SF), role mental/emotion function (RE), vitality (VT), perceptions of mental health (MH) were assessed. The normalized scores of each variable and the combined PHD or MHD scores before and after the Tai Chi intervention were examined by paired t-test (p < 0.05). Physical measures of BP and GH, and mental measures of RE, VT and MH were significantly improved after Tai Chi exercise intervention. When the overall PHD or MHD scores were evaluated, the MHD had increased significantly. In conclusion, Tai Chi exercise had positive effects on the self-assessed physical and mental health of college students. Scores on the mental health dimension appeared to be particularly sensitive to change. Colleges/universities might consider offering Tai Chi as a component of their ongoing physical activity programs available to students.

Effects of Tai Chi exercises on self-efficacy and psychological health

“…Of these 20, three studies were rejected because the intervention was a combination of exercises, did not mainly comprise TC exercises, or was not clearly described, whereas three other studies were not included because psychological health was not the main outcome. Thus, details of 14 studies are presented according to study design in Tables 3 and 4 [3,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. A total of eight randomized controlled studies and six nonrandomized ones were, thus, considered in this analysis.…”

“…This is also among such population that research has shown tangible results. Few nonrandomized studies have targeted TC effects on younger and middle-aged people [26,27,30]. However, the effects noted should be interpreted cautiously considering the lack of information on the description of the experimental settings and interventions used.…”

The Characteristics of Immunoglobulin and Complement by Aerobic Exercise and Stop Training

“…Wang et al [4] by Taiji training, the content of serum IgG female college students than the control group, and IgM, IgA was no significant difference. Liu Yan ring [5] found that tai chi exercise can improve female students IgA and IgG levels.…”

Taiji - Ressourcenaktivierung und Stressprotektion durch Ruhe in Bewegung

“…Bei Taiji - auch «Tai Chi» oder «Tai Chi Chuan» geschrieben - handelt es sich um eine achtsam und überwiegend langsam auszuübende Bewegungsform, die ihren Ursprung in den chinesischen Kampfkünsten hat. Wie klinische Studien nahelegen, kann regelmässiges Ausüben von Taiji zu einer signifikanten Verbesserung des körperlichen und psychischen Wohlbefindens der Praktizierenden führen und das subjektive Stressempfinden mindern [5,6,7]. Zur Untersuchung der ressourcenaktivierenden und stressprotektiven Wirkung von Taiji wurden während der vergangenen 4 Jahre an der Kollegialen Instanz für Komplementärmedizin (KIKOM) der Universität Bern diverse Forschungsarbeiten durchgeführt.…”