Tai Chi for heart attack survivors: qualitative insights.
Author: Conboy L1,2, Krol J3, Tomas J, Yeh GY4,5, Wayne P5, Salmoirago-Blotcher E3
Affiliation:
1Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA lisaconboy@gmail.com.
2New England School of Acupuncture, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
3Miriam Hospital, Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
4Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
5Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Conference/Journal: BMJ Support Palliat Care.
Date published: 2019 Apr 4
Other:
Pages: bmjspcare-2018-001685 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1136/bmjspcare-2018-001685. [Epub ahead of print] , Word Count: 219
OBJECTIVES: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programmes are standard of care for patients following a coronary event. While such exercise-based secondary prevention programme do offer benefits, they are used by less than 30% of eligible patients and attrition within these programmes is high. This project is a nested qualitative assessment of a pilot programme considering Tai Chi (TC) as an alternative to CR. We hypothesised that TC may overcome several key barriers to CR.
METHODS: A semistructured focus group agenda was used to assess three key domains of feasibility: (1) patients' experiences, (2) reasons/barriers for not having attended CR and (3) any improvements in physical activity and other secondary outcomes (quality of life, weight, sleep). A thematic analysis was used to better understand the key concepts.
RESULTS: This high-risk group of patients reported that they enjoyed TC exercise, and felt confident and safe doing it. TC practice was reported to support other types of physical activity allowing for a generalisation of positive effects.
DISCUSSION: This analysis is consistent with published reports of TC practice improving mood and psychological well-being. Qualitative methods allowed us to find emergent experiential reports of behaviour change factors found in established behaviour change theories.
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
KEYWORDS: cardiac rehabilitation; integrative medicine; rehabilitation
PMID: 30948446 DOI: 10.1136/bmjspcare-2018-001685
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