| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 健康政策與管理研究所 === 102 === Background and objective: Taiwan is one of the rapid ageing societies in the world. The increasing number of older people is expected to place heavy burden on social care and healthcare expenditure in the following decades in Taiwan. “Active aging” proposed by The World Health Organization emphasizes the importance of healthy aging and disability prevention in older adults. One of the recommendations acknowledged that physical activity such as Tai Chi played an important role in delaying older adults’ function decline and promoting healthy ageing. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to examine the effects of Tai Chi exercise on the health-related quality of life, physical function, and social support among residents who lived in congregate housing.
Methods: The present study applied quasi-experimental design. A convenience sampling of 50 residents (age≧62) of two separated congregate housing in northern Taiwan was recruited. 25 residents from one congregate housing and participated in an 18-week Tai Chi exercise program were recruited as experimental group; the rest 25 residents from the other congregate housing but did not receive any intervention were recruited as control group. Two times of face to face interview regarding the health-related quality of life, physical function, and social support were demonstrated at baseline, and 18-week during the study period. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to exam the effects of Tai Chi exercise on residents’ health-related quality of life, physical function, and social support. We further tested the mediated effect of social support between Tai Chi exercise and physical function and health-related quality of life by 3 series regression equations.
Results: After the 18-week intervention, a total of 14 residents of experimental group (56%) completed the Tai Chi exercise program and 24 residents of the control group (96%) remained in this study. The resident in the experimental group had significant improvements of general health (subscale of health-related quality of life, β = 7.73, p < .01), physical function (β = 2.41, p < .05), and chair-stand time (subscale of physical function, β = 1.27, p < 0.01) over 18 weeks of study period control group counterparts were found. However, in social support, it had significant improvements of instrumental support (β= 0.93, p < .05) after controlling age and spouse.
Conclusion: Tai Chi exercise is a beneficial program for those older residents living in congregate housing residents to maintain their general health and physical function.
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