title: Effects of community-based meditative Tai Chi programme on improving quality of life, physical and mental health in chronic heart-failure participants.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is increasing evidence that coronary heart disease is linked with a number of psychosocial risk factors and biophysiological risk factors such as metabolic syndrome. This study aimed to compare Tai Chi programme heart-failure participants between the pre-intervention phase and six month after intervention time in health-related quality of life (HRQoL), including physical health, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional and mental health. In addition, the difference between pre-intervention and post-intervention time in psychological distress and resilience, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were compared.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective intervention study was conducted in 2012 to evaluate the effectiveness of a community-based meditation Tai Chi intervention programme to improve heart-failure patients' health. Measures included the Short-Form 12 Health Survey (SF-12), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ30), resilience scale, BMI, blood pressure and waist circumference. Univariate analysis of variance was used to compare the difference between pre- and post-intervention in Tai Chi participants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Outcomes differed in significance and magnitude across four HRQoL measures, psychological distress and resilience between the pre- and post-intervention time in heart-failure patients who participated in the Tai Chi exercise. The participants in the post-intervention time also reduced BMI, SBP, and waist circumference.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Regular and more than six months Tai Chi exercises had a beneficial effect to HRQoL, reducing psychological distress, promoting resilience, and reducing the BMI and blood pressure level in heart-failure patients.
authors.affiliation: a Griffith Health Institute , Griffith University , Queensland , Australia.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Buys
authors.forename: Rohan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jayasinghe
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002681:China; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D026302:Tai Ji / Q000523:psychology*