Tai Chi Participants 50% Less Likely to Have Serious Falls

When tai chi was recently tested against lower extremity training (LET) for its effect on reducing falls, tai chi won. After six months of training, tai chi practitioners were significantly less likely to experience an injury-causing fall than those who underwent LET.

As noted in the March 11, 2016 news release, “In their study, researchers assigned 368 people 60-years-old and older who had received medical attention for a fall into one of two groups. The first group received hour-long individual tai chi classes conducted by tai chi instructors every week for 24 weeks. Tai chi is an exercise practice developed in China hundreds of years ago. It combines certain postures and gentle movements with mental focus, breathing, and relaxation. Tai chi can be practiced while you’re walking, standing, or even seated. Deep breathing, weight shifting, and leg stepping movements are part of the practice. The second group received individual, hour-long LET sessions for 24 weeks conducted by physical therapists. Sessions included stretching, muscle strengthening, and balance training.”

“The researchers asked participants in both groups to complete at least 80 percent of their sessions, and also to practice either tai chi or LET at home every day during the six-month program and the 12-month follow-up. During the course of the study, all participants kept diaries and recorded any falls they experienced, and they shared their diaries with researchers each month.”

Mau-Roung Lin, Ph.D., professor and director of the Institute of Injury Prevention and Control, Taipei Medical University in Taipei, Taiwan, was a co-author of the study. He told OTW, “Between the conventional exercise program (designed by physical therapist) and home-based tai chi chuan, we wanted to know which exercise program is more effective in reducing falls in older fallers. Tai chi chuan was more effective by more than 50% in reducing falls, even one year after the intervention. In addition, exercise practice level was also a key factor.”

“If possible, home-based tai chi chuan can be prescribed for older people with a falls history. It is possible that older people who practice the tai chi chuan have high adherence.”