Impacts of tai chi exercise on functional fitness in community-dwelling older adults with mild degenerative knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled clinical trial

Abstract

Background Degenerative osteoarthritis (OA) often leads to pain and stiffness of the affected joints, which may affect the physical performance and decrease the quality of life of people with degenerative knee OA. Compared to traditional exercise, tai chi is a safe exercise with slow movements which can facilitate physical functioning and psychological well being, and might be suitable for improving the physical activities of older adults with knee OA. Therefore, this study investigated the impacts of tai chi exercise on the functional fitness of community-dwelling older adults with degenerative knee OA. Methods Sixty-eight community-dwelling older adults with knee OA were recruited from the local community to participate in this randomized controlled clinical trial. All subjects were randomly assigned to either an TCE group that practiced tai chi exercise (TCE) (n = 36) or a control group (CON) (n = 32) that received regular health education programs twice per week for 12 weeks. Outcome measurements were determined using functional fitness tests before and after the intervention, including a 30-s chair stand (number of repeats), 30-s arm-curl (number of repeats), 2-min step (number of steps), chair sit-and-reach (reaching distance, cm), back-scratch flexibility (distance between hands, cm), single-leg stand (time, s), functional reach (reaching distance, cm), 8-foot up-and-go (time, s), and 10-m walk tests (time, s). Pre-post comparisons of functional fitness were analyzed using the ANCOVA test with SPSS software version 18.0. Results Results revealed that participants’ functional fitness in the TCE group had significantly higher adjusted mean post-tests scores than that in the CON group after the intervention, including the 8-foot up-and-go (s) (mean difference [MD]=-2.92 [-3.93, -1.91], p = 2.39*10− 7), 30-s arm curl (MD = 4.75 (2.76, 6.73), p = 1.11*10− 5), 2-min step (MD = 36.94 [23.53, 50.36], p = 7.08*10− 7), 30-s chair stand (MD = 4.66 [2.97, 6.36], p = 6.96*10− 7), functional-reach (MD = 5.86 [3.52, 8.20], p = 4.72*10− 6), single-leg stand with eyes closed (MD = 3.44 [1.92, 4.97], p = 2.74*10− 5), chair sit-and-reach (MD = 3.93 [1.72, 6.15], p = 0.001), and single-leg stand with eyes opened (MD = 17.07 [6.29, 27.85], p = 0.002), with large effect sizes (η²=0.14 ~ 0.34). Conclusions Community-dwelling older adults with knee OA in the TCE group had better functional fitness performances after the 12-week tai chi intervention than those receiving only health education.

Effects of computer-aided rowing exercise systems on improving muscle strength and function in older adults with mild knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled clinical trial

“…Therefore, the development of an appropriate exercise with low joint impacts and loading of OA knee joints is critical for improving the muscle strength and function in the lower limbs of older adults with knee OA. The results of numerous studies are consistent with these findings [17,18].…”

“…Recent studies reported that Tai Chi exercises are safe and slow movement multicomponent exercises with low impacts on the OA knee joint in older adults [18,19], and they improve physical performance, functional fitness, and psychological health conditions in older adults [18,[20][21][22][23]. Although Tai Chi can significantly improve physical performance and reduce pain and stiffness in individuals with OA [18,22,23], several limitations were also reported, including the requirement of well-experienced Tai Chi exercise instructor, inadequate feedback in group exercises, being insufficiently challenging, and high withdrawal rate because of boredom [18,24]. By contrast, combining game-based feedback and exercise can considerably enhance motivation, muscle strength, range of motion, and adhesion for people with knee disorders [25][26][27][28][29].…”

Zhuifeng tougu capsules inhibit the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway and alleviate knee osteoarthritis: In vitro and in vivo experiments

“…Its effect mainly relieves OA symptoms and delays cartilage wear ( Yao et al, 2021 ); it also has the advantages of a stable curative effect, low cost, and small side effects. In addition to internal and external administration of Chinese medicine, effective treatments of OA have been reported for needle therapy ( Mao and Kapur, 2010 ; Fu et al, 2020 ), moxibustion ( Wang et al, 2020 ), Tai chi ( Chen et al, 2021 ; Zheng et al, 2021 ), baduanjin ( Li J et al, 2020 ), and other non-drug treatments ( Song et al, 2021 ). However, insignificant effects over the corresponding placebo have been reported in reducing pain or improving function in patients with KOA ( Lao et al, 2015 ).…”

Factors influencing depression in community-dwelling elderly patients with osteoarthritis of the knee in China: a cross-sectional study

“…For patients with OA of the knee, loss of movement and function might limit their day-to-day activities, such as stair climbing, walking, and doing household chores. These conditions might diminish the patients’ quality of life and might be associated with depression and disturbed sleep, which additionally contribute to disability [ 44 , 45 ]. Previous research showed a significant negative association between social support and the prevalence of depression among the elderly [ 46 ].…”