title: Tai chi for upper limb rehabilitation in stroke patients: the patient's perspective.
abstract: This study aimed at exploring the perceived benefits and drawbacks of practicing tai chi, an alternative therapy that can be implemented in the community, as part of upper-limb rehabilitation following stroke.
  
  
  
  Semistructured interviews were carried out with participants with chronic stroke (>6 months). The participants took part in 16 tai chi sessions over 8 weeks. Interviews were conducted in person using an interview guide based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), and a thematic analysis was conducted.
  
  
  
  Eight interviews were carried out with participants at various stages of motor recovery. Participants perceived a number of physical, functional, and psychological benefits. They found tai chi to be a global exercise, including both physical and mental aspects, and suggested that it can be included as part of rehabilitation for stroke patients. Many participants expressed a desire to continue practicing tai chi after completion of the study because it exceeded their expectations, among other reasons.
  
  
  
  This study can serve to guide future tai chi interventions and research on tai chi for rehabilitation in terms of the characteristics of the intervention and the various areas to assess in order to measure the overall benefits. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Tai chi was perceived as a good way of integrating various skills learned during rehabilitation. Despite having different functional abilities, all the participants noted various physical, functional, and psychological benefits from participating in the tai chi sessions. Tai chi seems to be a form of exercise that stroke patients would perform more long-term since all the participants in this study expressed the desire to continue practicing tai chi.
authors.affiliation: a School of Rehabilitation, Université de Montréal , Montreal , Quebec , Canada.
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Desrochers
authors.affiliation: a School of Rehabilitation, Université de Montréal , Montreal , Quebec , Canada.|b Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal - IRGLM Site , Montreal , Quebec , Canada.
authors.forename: Dahlia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kairy
authors.affiliation: a School of Rehabilitation, Université de Montréal , Montreal , Quebec , Canada.
authors.forename: Shujuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: c School of Rehabilitation, Université de Sherbrooke , Sherbrooke , QC , Canada.|d Research Center on Aging, University Institute of Geriatrics of Sherbrooke , Sherbrooke , QC , Canada.
authors.forename: Hélène
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Corriveau
authors.affiliation: c School of Rehabilitation, Université de Sherbrooke , Sherbrooke , QC , Canada.|d Research Center on Aging, University Institute of Geriatrics of Sherbrooke , Sherbrooke , QC , Canada.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tousignant
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002170:Canada; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D036301:Qualitative Research; D020521:Stroke / Q000523:psychology*; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation / Q000379:methods*; D026302:Tai Ji / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Exercise; qualitative study; stroke; tai chi