PHYSICAL, COGNITIVE AND QUALITY OF LIFE EFFECTS OF TAI CHI IN OLDER ADULTS

B. Mena-Bejarano¹, C.A. Ospina-Wittinghan¹, C. Gonzalez-Mantilla², L.K. Duarte-Pedroza¹, O. Daza-Cómbita¹, B.R. Orozco-Moreno¹, L.C. Martinez-Navia¹, O.F. Mogollon¹

Background: Continuous changes in population density and exponential growth of the elderly population create rising concerns regarding the emerging issues that may afflict this group. The main problems range from risk of falls, loss of muscle mass, and cognitive deterioration to decreasing life quality resulting from loneliness and abandonment. These problems make the search for tools that aim to address both cognitive and physical training highly important, along with socializing with peers in populations of adults over 65 years.

Purpose: To identify any noticeable difference in cognitive capacity, physical capacity and life quality among practitioners and non-practitioners of Tai Chi at a 8 week program (16 weeks), targeted to participants subscribed to “Facusaludable” group of the Faculty of Medicine from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Methods: Cuasi-experimental study with pre and post measurement of a cuasi-control group in a sample of N=8 older than 60 years. Physical capacity tests included: gastrocnemius perimeter, FRAIL tool, 4 Stage Balance Test, TINETTI test, Timed up and Go, Chair Stand Test. Cognitive capacity was evaluated with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and emotional capacity with Yesavage geriatric depression scale (Yesavage 1985), Rey Complex Figure Test and Recognition Trial (FCRO), Trail Making Test (TMT), Symbol Digit Modalities Test A and B. (SDMT), Digits in direct and inverse order from WAIS III, Corsi Cubes in direct and inverse order, Phonological and semantic verbal fluency. There were 16 sessions of Yang Style Tai Chi performed twice per week with a length of 1 hour. The N=11 was randomly chosen, while the remaining N=11 only followed the activities of the “Facusaludable” program. The statistical program SPSS ver. 25, with parametric and non-parametric analysis was used despite the existence of variance equality, in compliance with normality parameters by means of the Shapiro-Wilk test; the sample size being so low, did not show reliability in its distribution. For this reason, it was better to use non-parametric tests as backup. Three subjects abandoned the cuasi-experimental group and eight the cuasi-control group. For this reason, only tests of related samples were used. G-Power software was used for statistical power tests.

Results: Specific differences were found with an adequate size of effect and statistical power in gait speed tests, Chair Standing test, Timed Up and Go, right and left gastrocnemius perimeter; in the cognitive area, several differences were found in the Trail Making Test ver. A (TMT- A).

Conclusion(s): The results showed improvement in resistance strength of lower limbs, decrease in fall risk and improvement in dynamic balance of the subjects in the sample. Likewise, changes were observed in processing speed, selective attention, and search and tracking capacity. Due to the low sample size, it is necessary to do more research with a larger sample and try to maintain adherence to the project.

Implications: Tai Chi must be implemented as a complete alternative to promote health and help prevent negative physical and mental changes in elders.

Funding, acknowledgements: Special thanks to Chin Woo Association of Colombia, the author(s) received no financial support for the research of this article.

Keywords: Tai Chi, Physical Aging, Cognitive Aging

Topic: Older people

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Committee: Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Ethics number: 018-216