[Effects of Tai Chi exercise in elderly with knee osteoarthritis].
OBJECTIVE
This study was to determine whether the Sun-style 24 forms of Tai Chi exercise improve pain, stiffness, disability, knee joint motion, mobility, balance or falling.


METHODS
Forty-six community-dwelling elderly subjects (mean age, 75.46+/-6.28) voluntarily participated in an intervention group of either 24 forms of Sun-style Tai Chi for 60 min, 2 times per week for 12 weeks or a control group. A non-equivalent pretest-posttest design was used. Independent t-test and ANCOVA were used to examine group differences by using SPSS12.0.


RESULTS
The experimental group had significantly less pain (F=7.60, p=.008) and stiffness (t=-3.19, p=.003) than the control group. Also there were significant improvements in knee joint motion on the right knee (t=2.44, p=.019), left knee (t=2.30, p=.026), rising time (F=8.03, p=.07), balance on the left single leg test (t=2.20, p=.033), and fear of falling (t=-2.33, p=.024) in the Tai Chi exercise group. No significant group differences were found in disability and falls efficacy.


CONCLUSIONS
The Sun-style 24 forms Tai Chi exercise is effective in decreasing pain, stiffness, fear of falling and it improves balance, rising time, and knee joint motion. We suggest a continuing long term intervention to decrease disability and increase efficacy concerning falls.
Lee
Hea-Young
HY
Department of Nursing, Kimcheon Science College, Gimcheon, Korea. hylee@kcs.ac.kr
Lee
Keum Jae
KJ
D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000628:therapy*; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D026302:Tai Ji