SAN FRANCISCO – Western and Eastern modes of exercise produced different improvements in physical functioning, and the Eastern exercise–tai chi–improved one measure of cognitive function in a year-long, randomized, controlled study of 132 healthy older adults.
This is the first study to document mental improvements resulting from tai chi, Ruth E. Taylor-Piliae, Ph.D., said in a poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America.
Compared with baseline, those who did Western-type exercise had greater improvement after 6 months in upper body flexibility, gaining 4 cm on the back-scratch test; the tai chi and control groups gained 1 cm.
But those who did tai chi had greater improvement in balance, adding 7 seconds to a single-leg stance test, compared with baseline; the Western exercise group added 4 seconds, and the control group added 1 second.
The tai chi group also had greater improvement in one of three measures of cognitive function studied, reported Dr. Taylor-Piliae of the University of Arizona, Tucson, and her associates.
Most of the improvements persisted after an additional 6 months of doing the same exercise, they reported.
Subjects' cognitive function was measured by tests of semantic fluency (animal naming) and digit span recall (forward and backward).
Results on the digits-backward test, which is thought to assess attention, concentration, and mental tracking, improved in the tai chi group.
The tai chi group's score went up an average of 0.6 points, while the average score in the Western exercise group went down by 0.7 and the control group's score went down by 0.1.
“I'd love to see older adults out there exercising, and if they're not interested in going to the gym and doing traditional Western exercise, tai chi is an alternative that they could pursue that will bring health benefits,” she said.
The study randomized sedentary adults with an average age of 69 years to a two-phase program of tai chi or Western exercise, or to a control group that received an attention-control intervention.
For the first 6 months, participants in the two exercise groups exercised for 45 minutes five times per week, twice in a class and three times at home.
During the second 6 months of the study, the participants did one classroom-based and three home-based exercise sessions per week.
The tai chi group learned the Yang-style 24-posture short form of tai chi.
The Western exercise group did a combination of exercises for aerobic endurance, flexibility, and strength that included walking, lifting light hand weights, and stretching.
The intention-to-treat analysis of results included all participants–37 in the tai chi group, 39 in the Western exercise group, and 56 in the control group.
Six-month assessments were available for 28 people in the tai chi group, 36 in the Western exercise group, and 51 in the control group.
The 1-year follow-up assessed 26 patients in the tai chi group and 34 in the Western exercise group.
Previous studies have shown that tai chi also can significantly improve strength and flexibility.
The current study included well-educated, relatively affluent people who probably were in fairly good shape at baseline, making some changes more difficult to detect in a small study, Dr. Taylor-Piliae suggested. She is designing a new study aimed at looking at the effects of tai chi in patients with cardiovascular problems, particularly stroke.
Cognitive function was measured by tests of semantic fluency (animal naming) and digit span recall. DR. TAYLOR-PILIAE
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