Effects of Tai Chi Exercise on body stability among the elderly during stair descent under different levels of illumination

ABSTRACT

The elderly are prone to stair descent falls under low illumination. Tai Chi, a traditional Chinese conditioning exercise, has been proved to improve body stability by altering body condition, gait, and proprioception. This study investigates whether Tai Chi exercise could improve body stability during stair descent under high and low illumination. Three groups of elderly women who practice Tai Chi, brisk walking, and no exercise were included. They descended from a simulated staircase. Tai Chi participants decreased horizontal velocity, centre of mass (COM) sway, and increased foot clearance compared with other participants, these movements could increase body stability; Compared with under high illumination, Tai Chi participants decreased horizontal velocity, loading rate, braking impulse, and increased inclination angle, COM sway, centre of pressure displacement under low illumination. Tai Chi participants were more sensitive to the difference in illumination, and took corresponding strategies to stabilize their bodies during stair descent.

KEYWORDS:

• Aged
• fall
• gait
• stair walking

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank graduate students of Shandong Sport University, Liyi Xie, Lijun Xing, Cuicui Wang, Jianlin Zhang, Huawei Qiu, and Fantong Meng for their experimenting or data acquisition for this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This article was supported by the Graduate Education Innovation Fund of Shanghai University of Sport (yjscx 2015018), Key Research Field Project of General Administration of Sport of China (2014B057), and Science Development Project of Chinese Shandong Province (2012G0030039), and Natural Scientific Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2010CQ031 and ZR2014CM046).