The effect of Tai Ji and Qigong in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A systematic review and meta-analyses

• Published in: European journal of integrative medicine 2020-12, Vol.40, p.101223, Article 101223
• Main Authors: Yang, Ting-Ting, Liu, Xin, Wang, Ya-Qing, Song, Chun-Yu, Ma, Rui-Chen, Yin, Ying-Ying, Xie, Jiao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Exercises; Meta-analysis; Qigong; Systematic review; Tai ji
• ISSN: 1876-3820; 1876-3839
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eujim.2020.101223

Exercise training is a core component of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) and Tai Ji and Qigong (AJQ) are both traditional Chinese exercises. This review aimed to investigate the effectiveness of AJQ as an adjunct to PR for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. All entries to the following databases were searched up until 15 November 2019: EMBASE Ovid, the Cochrane Central Register of Randomized Controlled Trials, PubMed, Web of Science, Weipu, Wanfang, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases. A total of eighteen randomized controlled trials articles with 1267 patients were included. AJQ can increase the 6-minute walk distance (6MWD) by 41.51 m on average. Thirteen studies assessed quality of life and showed significant improvement and eleven studies have reported the measures of pulmonary function and showed significant increase. The review demonstrated that AJQ may be useful as an adjunct to pulmonary rehabilitation of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Future studies should explore the differences between different types of AJQ to create tailor more effective exercise interventions for PR.