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Tai chi may prevent falls in older, at-risk adults

Tai chi, an ancient Chinese practice focused on flexibility, coordination and harmonized motion, may help reduce the rate of falls and injury-related falls in older and at-risk adults, according to findings published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.

“It has been reported that tai chi is an effective exercise to improve balance-control and flexibility in older adults, suggesting a protective role against falls...” Rafael Lomas-Vega, PhD, from the department of health science at the University of Jaén in Spain, and colleagues wrote. “There is a lack of information about the effects of tai chi on the reduction of the falls rate, the time to first fall and the number of injurious falls.”

Researchers performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the most recent randomized controlled trials that compared the effectiveness of tai chi in preventing falls among older and at-risk adults with other treatments. They measured fall incidence and time to first fall, compiling data regarding incidence of falls and injury-related falls for short-term (less than 12 months) and long-term (1 year and more) follow-up. Length of interventions ranged from 12 to 26 weeks and frequency of the 1-hour sessions ranged from one to three times a week.

Out of 891 potentially eligible studies, 10 met the inclusion criteria. Of these, five studies reported data on 1,432 participants over short-term follow-up and six studies reported data on 1,546 participants over long-term follow-up. Analysis showed that high quality evidence supported the use of tai chi to reduce the rate of falls by 43% compared with other interventions at short-term follow-up (IRR = 0.57; 95% CI, 0.46-0.7) and by 13% at long-term follow-up (IRR = 0.87; 95% CI, 0.77-0.98). Low-quality evidence regarding the rate of injury-related falls over the short-term showed that tai chi reduced risk by 50% (IRR = 0.5; 95% CI, 0.33-0.74) and 28% over the long-term (IRR = 0.72; 95% CI, 0.54-0.95). Tai chi did not influence time to first fall (HR = 0.98; 95% CI, 0.69-1.37).

“Tai chi practice may be recommended to prevent falls in at-risk adults and older adults, especially over the short term, and may have a protective effect on the incidence of injurious falls,” Lomas-Vega and colleagues wrote. “Due to the quality of the evidence, future studies are required to investigate the effect of tai chi on injurious falls and time to first fall.” – by Savannah Demko

Disclosures: The researcher report no relevant financial disclosures.