title: Elderly quality of life impacted by traditional Chinese medicine techniques.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The shift in age structure is having a profound impact, suggesting that the aged should be consulted as reporters on the quality of their own lives.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this research was to establish the possible impact of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) techniques on the quality of life (QOL) of the elderly.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two non-selected, volunteer groups of Rio de Janeiro municipality inhabitants: a control group (36 individuals), not using TCM, and an experimental group (28 individuals), using TCM at ABACO/Sohaku-in Institute, Brazil.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire on elderly QOL devised by the World Health Organization, the WHOQOL-Old, was adopted and descriptive statistical techniques were used: mean and standard deviation. The Shapiro-Wilk test checked the normality of the distribution. Furthermore, based on its normality distribution for the intergroup comparison, the Student t test was applied to facets 2, 4, 5, 6, and total score, and the Mann-Whitney U rank test to facets 1 and 3, both tests aiming to analyze the P value between experimental and control groups. The significance level utilized was 95% (P < 0.05).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The experimental group reported the highest QOL for every facet and the total score.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that TCM raises the level of QOL.
authors.affiliation: ABACO/Sohaku-in Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. helenafigueira@gmail.com
authors.forename: Helena A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Figueira
authors.forename: Olivia A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Figueira
authors.forename: Alan A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Figueira
authors.forename: Joana A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Figueira
authors.forename: Tania S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Giani
authors.forename: Estélio H M
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Dantas
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D001938:Brazil; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome