Tai Chi Can Help Older Adults To Avoid Falling: Study

Those who are ageing can adopt tai chi techniques to enhance their balance and reduce the risk of falling, says a new study by experts at the Institute of Injury Prevention and Control, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan.

"I suggest that older adults learn tai chi exercises in a class, and practice at home at least once a day," Mau-Roung Lin, co-author of the study, said in the press release.

The researchers compared the effects of tai chi to "lower extremity training" (LET), a form of physical therapy. They conducted their research for a sample group of 368 participants aged 60 and above. The participants got medical care at a hospital emergency department half a year before the study commenced.

The groups were divided into tai chi and LET teams, with the first group attending classes with instructors. The weekly, hour-long classes were conducted for six months.

Both groups got the same amount of training, and participants from both teams were advised to finish at least 80 percent of their sessions.

The experts measured six functional factors, including "handgrip strength, balance, mobility, depression, mental ability and fear of falling".

The fall was measured by classifying them into four measures, including "falls, fallers, recurrent fallers and time to first fall".

After six months, the researchers found that the tai chi group tended to fall less than the other one. The results were duplicated after a year when the tai chi team participants still showed a 50-percent lower chance of experiencing a fall.

"Both interventions improved balance and motor control, muscular strength, depressive symptoms, and cognitive function, although the TCC [tai chi chuan] group did not exhibit greater improvements in the aforementioned functional outcomes than the LET group except in cognition," the authors wrote.

The tai chi group thus showed better cognitive function than the LET group. However, the LET team indicated better improvements in the other functional measures.

The findings were published in Feb. 11, 2016 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.