This study was attemped to verify the effects of Tai Chi exercise on the pain, fatigue, ability of daily life performance, and a sense of equilibnum of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis. It employed a non-equivalent control group pre- and post-te...
This study was attemped to verify the effects of Tai Chi exercise on the pain, fatigue, ability of daily life performance, and a sense of equilibnum of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis. It employed a non-equivalent control group pre- and post-test design and was conducted for 5 months from September 2002 to March 2003 to 61 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (32 in the experimental and 29 in the control group). Pain was measured with the graphic rating scale that divided 15cm straight line into 15 equal parts, and fatigue was measured by the Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue (MAF) developed by Tack (1991) and used by Eun-Ok Lee (1999). Ability of daily life performance was examined by the WOMAC for Koreans that was modified and complemented by Bae et al. (2001), and a sense of erluilibrium was investigated having the subjects stand on one leg, the method used by Kirkendall et al. (1987). The subjects were selected from the outpatients in the department of internal medicine, the division of rheumatology in E university hospital in Daeleon who satisfied the requirement In the study.
32 patients in the ekperimental group carried out 50 minutes of Tai Chi exercise for 12 weeks, and 29 patients in the control group didn't have any exercise. Before and after the experiment, pain, fatigue, ability of daily life performance, and a sense of equilibrium were measured in both groups. Collected data were processed using the SPSS/WIN 10.0 program analyzing by the frequency, percentage, χ^(2)-test, and t-test.
The results were summarifed as follows:
1) The first hypothesis, "the experimental group applied with Tai Chi exercises will have less pain than the control group that had no exercise", was supported.
2) The second hypothesis, "the experimental group applied with Tai Chi exorcises will have less fatigue than the control group that had no exercise", was supported.
3) The third hypothesls, "the experimental group applied with Tai Chi exercises will have higher ability of daily life performance than the control group that had no exercise", was rejected.
4) The fourth hypothesis, "the experimental group applied with Tai Chi exorcises will have better sense of equilibrium than the control group that had no exercise", was supported.
As the results, pain and fatigue significantly decreased in the experimental group that carried out Tai Chi exercises. But the slight improvement in the ability of daily life performance of the rheumatoid arthritis patients was not statistically significant. Their sense of ertuilibrium enhanced significantly. Based on this result, it is concluded that the Tai Chi exercise is an effective nursing intervention to be used for rheumatoid arthritis patients.