CLINICAL RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS
Please note: All posters will be displayed in
Salons 10-12.
FRIDAY, 5:45-6:30 PM
Yang Y, DeCelle S, Reed M, Rosengren K, Schlagal R,
Greene J.
My life is my art: Lived experiences of older adults
practicing Taiji (T'ai Chi) and Qigong (Ch'i Kung).
Kinesiology Department, University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign yyang5@uiuc.edu
PURPOSE: This study investigated the multi-dimensional
effects of a six-month Taiji/Qigong traditional curriculum intervention
with older adults, in order to enrich our understanding of the character
and extent of benefits of the intervention, and to construct a model
useful for describing and understanding the meanings respondents attributed
to their experience with Taiji.
METHODOLOGY: We conducted in-depth interviews
with four purposefully selected participants, individuals, who, in their
own opinion and in the opinion of the Taiji instructors, derived significant
benefit from the intervention. Using the transcripts as data, we inductively
coded the benefits cited by respondents into descriptive categories
and then used this coding to generate a conceptual model that represents
the rich portrait of Taiji benefits for older adults captured by our
data. This model honors both the uniqueness and the commonalities of
respondents' experiences, and it resonates with their own interpretations
of their meaning.
RESULTS: Taiji and Qigong are complex, holistic
practices for improving health, fitness and function that have existed
for many hundreds of years in China. They are based on a philosophy
that not only integrates mind, body and spirit, but posits that they
are, in fact, inseparable. We found that all of our respondents were
initially motivated by physical ailments and concerns and all experienced
physical gains related to their initial motivations. They all also experienced
benefits in at least three other dimensions across a five-dimensional
(physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual) model. All reported
a significantly enhanced mind/body connection, and significant positive
psychological effects. They all also reported integrated mind/body/spirit
experiences that were quite powerful and quite unexpected and, in their
own opinion, were the most important and meaningful outcomes from their
participation in Taiji.
CONCLUSIONS: Taiji appears able to generate
positive physical, mental, emotional and spiritual effects that are
holistic, integrative, and broad in scope, in select older adult participants.
Our results support the notion that improvement in health is a complex
phenomenon that, as lived, is inseparable from the mind/body/spirit
continuum of a person's experience of herself/himself. Qualitative studies
can clearly play an important role in researching the possible benefits
and the underlying mechanisms that account for these benefits of Taiji
and Qigong.
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