Effects Of 24 - Week Taiji Exercise On The Accuracy Of Posture Control Of Elderly Women And The Sensation Of Lower Limbs

Objective: Regular Tai Chi exercise can improve the balance function of the elderly, it has been confirmed by many scholars, but the lack of Tai Chi exercise on postural control accuracy of the elderly, and has a few document on the Tai Chi exercise to improve lower limb proprioception. Therefore, this study demonstrate the impact of24weeks regular Tai Chi exercise on the accuracy of the elderly women of postural control and knee, ankle joint motion sense, thus will enrich the theory of Tai Chi exercise prevention of falls in older people.Methods:A total of43people (average age≥60) completed the experiment. The tai chi group (22) for24weeks has regular tai chi exercise while the control group (21) at the same time, keep the habit of not exercising at home. We use the Finland Good Balance tester and had tests on the static, dynamic balance of all subjects before and after the experiment.1) Static balance testing: Acquisition subjects open, closed two cases, two feet remain stable when the body center of pressure in the left and right and the front rear direction moving distance, moving speed indicators2) Dynamic balance test: Acquisition of subjects in the same stand conditions, according to the requirements of video,and we had tests on indicators of body center gravity center of pressure line move to the specific direction length, movement time and velocity. We used the knee, ankle proprioception testing instrument in the before and after24week, and had tests on knee, ankle joint motion perception of the subjects of the two groups. Results：The static balance test results show that, compared with the control group, in the open state, the center of pressure about the direction of the moving speed of the Tai Chi Group decreased36.9%(p=0.005) in the eyes closed condition, speed, pressure center about the direction of the moving distance is19.8%(p=0.018),20.9%(p=0.013) less. Dynamic balance test results show that, compared with the control group, the total line length of pressure center of the Tai Chi group dynamic movement in three directions is18.6%less (p=0.005), moving around and around the direction of the length of the shortest route18.3%(p=0.002) and21.9%(p=0.002), and there were no significant differences between groups in other indicators. 3）Motion sense test: Compared with before intervention, the Tai Chi Group knee flexion movement kinesthetic changed from1.98±0.87°to1.16±0.66°(p=0.001), knee extension and motion perception changed from2.26±1.41°to1.18±0.54°(p=0.002), ankle dorsiflexion motion perception changed from2.14±1.07°to1.52±0.57°(p=0.020) intervention, compared with the control group, knee flexion extension motion perception of the Tai Chi group shows a significant difference (p=0.044flexion, extension p=0.009), ankle dorsiflexion movement kinesthetic also have significant difference (p=0.014). Conclusions: The24week Tai Chi intervention proved beneficial effect of Taiji exercise to improve the control precision of elderly women pose. After the intervention, the static balance function of the Tai Chi Group is improved significantly, especially the balance control about the left and right direction and in the dynamic balance tests, the control ability in right direction, before and after the balance are improved and it can significantly improve the knee flexion, knee extension and ankle dorsiflexion motion perception of the elderly female, ankle plantar flexion motion perception has some changes but not significant.