A Study Of The Clinical Efficacy Of Shaolin Neigong On Health Related Quality Of Life In Pre-diabetes

Objective:Pre-diabetes can negatively affect patients’health related quality of life (HRQOL). More often than not, the evaluations of pre-diabetes interventions assess the effects on blood glucose control and pay little attention to the effects on quality of life. This purpose of this study was to assess the health related quality of life of pre-diabetes patients practicing traditional Chinese Shaolin Neigong.Research Design and Methods:Fifty patients with pre-diabetes were randomly divided into 3 groups:1) a control group (n=10),2) a walking group (n=10), and 3) a Shaolin Neigong group (n=30). The control group subjects maintained their original state of life and did not participate in any prescription exercise. The walking group walked twice a day at a moderate pace (80-100 paces/min), for 30 minutes each time,5 days per week, for 6 consecutive months. The Shaolin Neigong group practiced Shaolin Neigong as exercise intervention, more than 5 days per week, for 6 consecutive months. Ten subjects practiced once a day, ten subjects practiced twice a day, and the final ten subjects were asked to practice three times a day. The Shaolin Neigong groups had professional guidance and corrective action twice a week for the first two weeks and then were asked to practice on their own for the following 22 weeks. In each group, the patients’ SF-36 scale score was measured before, at three months, and after intervention. Blood glucose levels were measured at baseline and following intervention.Results:In each group, the post versus pre-intervention mental component summary scores (MCS) and physical component summary scores (PCS) were compared to examine whether there was any significant change in HRQOL over time. The results revealed a significant difference (p<0.05) in MCS scores for groups B (p<0.05), C (p<0.01), D (p<0.01), and E (p<0.01) suggesting that while simply walking may produce an effect, practicing Shaolin Neigong is a superior method of intervention. When comparing each group, practicing twice and three times a day significantly improved MCS scores compared to practicing once per day, however, no significance was found between the groups practicing twice and three times per day (p>0.05). Following a comparison of post and pre-intervention PCS scores, both group D (p<0.001) and group E (p<0.001) showed significant improvement suggesting that practicing Shaolin Neigong will result in greater sense of physical wellbeing. When comparing groups, once again there was a significant improvement of PCS scores in groups D (p<0.05) and E (p<0.05) in relation to the control group (A), however, there was no statistical significance found between the two groups (p>0.05). The HRQOL results were similarly reflected in the of change blood glucose levels following intervention.Conclusion:The practice of Shaolin Neigong led to a significant improvement of health-related quality of life of pre-diabetics, especially when practicing two and three times daily.