Tai Chi May Be Equally Good As Physical Therapy In Fighting Knee Osteoarthritis

A study shows that tai chi is as good as the conventional physical therapy (PT) in battling the knee osteoarthritis. It also indicates that tai chi is more effective than PT in treating depression and enhancing the physical component of quality life.

Medscape reports that study was published online in the Annals of Internal Medicine on May 17, 2016. It was led by Chenchen Wang, MD. He explained that tai chi improves pain, depression, physical function and health status in patients with knee OA likened with wellness education and stretching.

Tai Chi is a form of martial art, which is well known for its health benefits and defense techniques. It is also considered as a form of meditation in motion, which stimulates inner peace and serenity. It was created by the Taoist monk Zhang Sanfeng in the 12th century.

The study involved 204 patients with aged 40 years or older who had symptomatic knee OA and radiographic evidence of tibiofemoral or patellofemoral OA. The researchers asked them to do tai chi for 60-minute sessions twice a week for 12 weeks or to have a standard physical therapy for 30-minute sessions twice a week for 6 weeks. These are followed by 6 weeks of home exercise monitored by weekly telephone calls and by standardized forms reporting exercises completed frequency, adherence and adverse events.

The researchers explained the outcome of the study. They said that the upper limit of the 95 percent CI for the 12-week WOMAC or the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index pain score indicated that physical therapy was highly likely to be superior to tai chi by not over 10 points, well within the no inferiority margin of 20 points. They further explained that the tai chi group showed greater improvement that the physical therapy group for most outcomes. On the other hand, these differences were not statistically important except for the 36-item Short Form Health Survey physical component and the Beck Depression Inventory-II scores.

They said that this comparative effectiveness trial of 2 active therapies showed that despite a considerable difference in intensity of contact for participants between groups, tai chi and physical therapy each confer clinically major improvements in pain and related health outcomes by 12 weeks with the benefits maintained up to 52 weeks. They added that both treatment groups showed the same improvement and the tai chi group had greater improvements in depression and the physical component of quality life.