Effect of Qigong on physical and psychosocial status of Chinese COPD patients : a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

COPD remains a major health care problem that incurs a heavy cost burden to the community. Despite years of experience in pulmonary rehabilitation, the clinical outcome of exercise as the main classical intervention remains unsatisfactory. Positive findings of our earlier work on Health Qigong (HQG) among older adults with chronic medical conditions suggest that it is also applicable for COPD patients. To continue the study of using HQG as an adjunct exercise, we adapted the earlier version "Baduanjin" to suit the characteristics of COPD patients based on the opinions of a group of carefully selected experts. The safety and applicability of this protocol was tested by a field study among a group of people with COPD. Given that it is a safe and feasible form of intervention, a RCT with adequate concealment in subject allocation, outcome assessment by blind and independent assessors, comparable placebo treatment for control group, large enough sample size based on effect size calculation, and intention-to-treat analyses was implemented. The goal of the RCT was to test the effectiveness of this adapted qigong protocol in improving the functional capacities and quality of life of COPD patients six months after completion of the PRP. Trend of better improvement in functional capacities and the QOL aspects was noted only among HQG subjects over the 6-month follow-up period across various outcome measures. Though not conclusive yet, the findings do provide support for clinical application in terms of safety, cost and potential therapeutic value, and point out areas for improvement in research. In addition, the study stimulate further future direction of research on the potential "anti-inflammatory" action of Health Qigong, which may explain the mechanism of how health qigong work.