Efficacy of Baduanjin Exercise and Feasibility of Mobile Text Reminders on Follow-up Participation in People With Severe Mental Illness: An Exploratory Study.
People with severe mental illness (SMI) frequently have poor physical health, which can in part be related to a low level of physical activity. The goal of this exploratory study was to examine the efficacy of a group participating in Baduanjin (a type of traditional Chinese exercise) on the health of individuals with SMI and the feasibility/acceptability of using short message service (SMS) reminder strategies to prompt continued exercise during a follow-up period.



Participants (N=11) participated in a Baduanjin group session for 8 weeks and then maintained home-based Baduanjin with SMS reminders for another 8 weeks. Physical and psychological tests were administered to participants.



Significant improvements were found in balance and processing speed and in some domains of the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) after the Baduanjin program. Participants were able to maintain engagement in 80% of the expected practice time during the follow-up period. The acceptability of strategies to support home-based exercise, including SMS reminders, was high.



This preliminary study suggested the efficacy of Baduanjin and the feasibility of SMS reminders in maintaining follow-up participation in people with SMI. Future studies using a larger sample size and a control group are needed to confirm the findings.
CHEN, TSAI, and YU: Department of Occupational Therapy, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan YEH: Department of Occupational Therapy, Shu-Zen Junior College of Medicine and Management, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan CHANG: Department of Occupational Therapy, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan YU: Department of Psychiatry, Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan HSU: Division of Physical Education, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.
Ming-DE
MD
Chen
Ya-Chin
YC
Yeh
Yi-Jung
YJ
Tsai
Yen-Ching
YC
Chang
June-Wei
JW
Yu
Ching-Hui
CH
Hsu
D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D017010:Reminder Systems; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000628:therapy*; D060145:Text Messaging; D055815:Young Adult