Eye-hand Coordination of Elderly People Who Practice Tai Chi Chuan

• Published in: Journal of the Formosan Medical Association 2008-02, Vol.107 (2), p.103-110
• Main Authors: Pei, Yu-Cheng, Chou, Shih-Wei, Lin, Pay-Shih, Lin, Yin-Chou, Hsu, Tony H.C, Wong, Alice M.K
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; elderly; eye-hand coordination; Female; Humans; Internal Medicine; Male; motor control; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Tai Chi; Tai Chi Chuan; Tai Ji
• ISSN: 0929-6646
• DOI: 10.1016/S0929-6646(08)60123-0

Background/Purpose The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of motor control from Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) on eye-hand coordination in the elderly. Methods Forty-two elderly people were recruited into this study. People in the TCC group ( n = 22) had been practicing TCC regularly for more than 3 years. The control group ( n = 20) comprised healthy and active elderly people. Subjects were asked to stroke target sensors in a test device with computer recording. There were three different target sensor sizes (1 cm, 1.5 cm and 2 cm in diameter) for different tests. For each target stroking, the following were recorded and calculated: start and end positions, duration of movement, pause time, peak velocity, and the time to reach peak velocity. Results The TCC group showed significantly better results in decrease of displacement ( p = 0.003), movement time ( p = 0.002), pause time ( p < 0.001), number of submovements ( p = 0.001), and better skewness coefficients ( p < 0.001) than the control group. However, the difference in the peak velocity of the TCC and control groups did not reach statistical significance ( p = 0.026). Conclusion The elderly TCC group had better results on the eye-hand coordination test than the control elderly group.