The effect of qigong program for health promotion (2) - Using the 'General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)'

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to see the change of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), before and after undergoing qigong training.

Subject and Method:

The population of the study was composed of 16 individuals (8 male and 8 female) in the ages of 32 to 73 (mean 54.8 (+ or -)13.0. They are all the members of NC MENTIS (a prototype of alternative therapies facility in health promotion).

Those 16 individuals filled in the GHQ before they began the practice of Hui Chur Gong, called 'Kai Syun Koun in Japan. They continued the training for about three months and then they did the same questionnaire.

Result:

(1) The following results were obtained; there were significant changes in the total score of GHQ after qigong training on all of the 16 healthy subjects from 10.13 (+ or -) 10.71 to 5.13 (+ or -) 5.00, t=2.21, p<O.05). When we saw the subscales, the somatic symptom score was significantly decreased on all of the subjects from 1.94 (+ or -) 1.88 to 0.56 (+ or -) 0.63, t=3.15, p<0.01). Although the subjects demonstrated the improvement in the other subscales, they were not so outstanding.

(2) There were no significant changes among the male group in the total score and the subscale scores.

(3) The somatic symptom scores were significantly improved in the female group. The score was decreased after qigong training from 2.13 (+ or -) 2.10 to 0.50 (+ or -) 0.53, t=2.49, p<O.05), but there were no significant changes in the other subscales.

Conclusion:
After the training of the qigong program, the general health condition, especially somatic symptoms, had a tendency of improvement in GHQ scores. So it is concluded that qigong program can be useful for enhancement of general health condition.