Research On The Short-term Effects Of Baduanjin Exercise On The Balance Function Of Elderly Women In The Community

ObjectiveTo explore the impact of short-term Ba Duan Jin Exercise on balance function among the community-dwelling female elderly aged 60-80.MethodsCommunity intervention trials was used in the study.Through convenient sampling method,144 eligible female elderly who met inclusive criterion were chosen from 9 communities after initial screening.All participants were randomly allocated to intervention and control group in units of community.There were 71 participants in intervention group while the rest 73 in control group.For intervention group,a 3-month duration with 1 hour per day and 5 days per week Ba Duan Jin Exercise were conducted.The intervention form were primarily designed as collective Ba Duan Jin Exercise,with same intensity individual exercise as supplementary if a participant could not be able to join in collective exercise.Besides,health education were carried out 2 times by distributing materials related to elderly falls prevention.For control group,only health education was carried out with same form and contents.During intervention period,exercise log was used among intervention group to record the quality and quantity of Ba Duan Jin Exercise.Telephone interview or household interview was used among control group to investigate the situation of physical activities and loss to follow-up.Before and after Ba Duan Jin Exercise were conducted,data collection were carried out in the aspects of demographics,physical activities,illness,medications,balance function and other potential factors influencing balance function.For balance function,it was measured by Berg Balance Scale(BBS)score,Single Leg-Stand with Eye-Open time,Single Leg-Stand with Eye-Close time,Tandem Standing with Eye-Open time,Tandem Standing with Eye-Close time and Closed Cycle Test(CCT)time.Berg Balance Scale score(BBS score)was selected as the key indicator to examine any change in balance function pre-and post-intervention among all participants or within each group separately.Multiple Linear Regression with Difference in Difference Estimator and Robust and Clustered Standard Error Estimation Model(DID Model)and Multilevel Model with Random Intercept and Robust Standard Error Estimation(Multilevel Regression Model)were applied to explore the impact of short-term Ba Duan Jin Exercise on BBS score changing among all participants.Whether join in the exercise,total days with qualified exercise,average days with qualified exercise per week were selected as three independent variables,while BBS score was regarded as dependent variable during statistical analysis.Some potential factors with interests were also included as covariates in the analysis.Results5 out of 144(3.47%)participants lost to follow-up during intervention period,while 139 participants in total had fully completed the short-term intervention and were included in the analysis.For all participants in intervention group,the attendance rate for collective exercise was 96.81%,the qualified rate for collective exercise was 90.77%,the qualified rate for individual exercise was 86.70%,and the average days with qualified exercise per week was 4.93.After intervention period,an upward trend in all indicators of balance function can be observed in intervention group compared with control group.Among which,there were a statistically significant difference(P<0.05)in BBS score,Right-Leg-Stand with Eye-Open,Left-Leg-Stand with Eye-Close time,Right-Leg-Stand with Eye-Close time,Tandem Standing with Eye-Close time and CCT time,.T-test indicated that the change of BBS score in intervention group was 2.95 more than the change of BBS score in control group(P<0.001),the change of CCT time in intervention group was 1.99 seconds more than the change of CCT score in control group(P<0.01).All other indicators for balance function only showed changes in value without statistically significant.When taking covariates of interests into analysis,DID Model,Two-Level Regression Model and Three-Level Regression Model indicated that,BBS score was increased 2.51-2.65(P<0.05)on average among participants who joined in the Ba Duan Jin Exercise.Each 0.04(P<0.05)BBS score was increased per day with qualified exercise.Compared with control group,BBS score was increased in accordance with the increasing in average days with qualified exercise per week among intervention group.A dose-response relationship can be observed between average days with qualified exercise per week and BBS score.ConclusionResults suggested that short-term Ba Duan Jin Exercise can improve balance function among community-dwelling female elderly aged 60-80.During intervention period,there was a dose-response relationship between exercise quantity and BBS score.Also,BBS score was increased in accordance with the increasing in exercise quantity.