Effectiveness of Tai Chi Training on Metabolic Syndrome

Angus Yu

Status: Completed

Conditions: Metabolic Syndrome

Treatments: Other: Conventional Exercise; Other: Tai Chi

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03107741

Tai Chi and Metabolic Syndrome

Details and patient eligibility

About

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a serious public health problem in Hong Kong and worldwide. Older adults, the age group with the highest prevalence of MetS, may prefer specific exercise modalities that are suitable for their regular participation to manage MetS. This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Tai Chi, a very suitable exercise for older adults, to alleviate MetS in older population

Full description

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a serious public health problem in Hong Kong and worldwide. Older adults, the age by specific exercise modalities that are suitable for regular participation. This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Tai Chi to alleviate MetS in older population.

DESIGN & METHODS: This study is a three-arm assesscer blinded randomized controlled trial. Older adults aged 50 years or above with abdominal obesity will be randomly assigned to passive control, active control and Tai Chi groups. Subjects assigned to Tai Chi and active control groups will receive a 12-week intervention of Tai Chi and generic fitness, respectively. No intervention will be given to the passive control group. Outcome measures including waist circumference, blood pressure, blood glucose, triglyceride and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol will be assessed at baseline, post-intervention and follow-up (6 months after the end of intervention) assessments in all groups.

HYPOTHESES: We hypothesize that: 1) improvements of waist circumference and other indicators of MetS are found in Tai Chi group but not in passive control group and 2) improvements of waist circumference and other indicators of MetS are more profound in Tai Chi group than active control group.

Enrollment: 543 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 50+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Ethnic Chinese
• Abdominal Obese: Meeting the defined criteria of International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) for abdominal obesity using Asian-specific cut off (waist circumference ≥ 90 cm for male; ≥ 80 cm for female)

Exclusion criteria

• Regularly practice moderate-intensity exercise or tai chi (>3 times a week of >30-min/ session)
• Serious medical and somatic condition that prevent participation in generic fitness/Tai Chi exercise
• Serious chronic diseases known to affect mobility (eg. Neurological diseases, musculoskeletal disorder and autoimmune diseases)
• Under treatment for serious chronic diseases (eg. Cancer treatment)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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543 participants in 3 patient groups, including a placebo group

Passive Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Subjects in this group will not receive any intervention.

Conventional Exercise

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Subjects in this group will receive three 1-hour conventional exercise training sections per week for 12 weeks

Treatment:

Other: Conventional Exercise

Tai Chi

Active Comparator group

Description:

Subjects in this group will receive three 1-hour tai chi training sections per week for 12 weeks

Treatment:

Other: Tai Chi