Efficacy of Taiji Training as a Program for Stress Prevention
Condition: Primary Prevention; Stress; Tai ji; Adult
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Background: Excessive exposure to psychosocial stress can be a potent trigger for somatic
      diseases and psychological disorders, a cause for missing work, and eventually lead to high
      economic loss. Therefore, for health and economic reasons the assessment of effectiveness of
      stress preventive interventions is of high relevance. According to several clinical studies,
      Taiji, a Chinese form of mindful and gentle movements, can significantly reduce symptoms of
      somatic diseases and psychological disorders. Some recently conducted Taiji-studies with
      healthy subjects indicate a stress protective effect. However, the stress protective impact
      of Taiji regarding psychosocial stress has not yet been examined.

      Objective: To investigate the efficacy of a 12 week Taiji training as a stress prevention
      program by measuring psychosocial stress reactivity in a laboratory setting, as well as the
      subjective perception of stress and coping-resources in daily life of 70 healthy volunteers.

      Hypothesis: Healthy subjects attending a 12 week Taiji course (frequency: twice a week for
      1h) will show significantly reduced psychobiological reactivity, decreased stress perception
      and increased coping-resources on a standardized psychosocial stress test compared with
      healthy subject of the waiting list.
    

Detailed description: 
      Background:

      Excessive exposure to psychosocial stress can be a potent trigger for somatic diseases and
      psychological disorders, a cause for missing work, and eventually lead to high economic loss.
      Therefore, for health and economic reasons the assessment of effectiveness of stress
      preventive interventions is of high relevance. According to several clinical studies, Taiji,
      a Chinese form of mindful and gentle movements, can significantly reduce symptoms of somatic
      diseases and psychological disorders. Some recent Taiji-studies with healthy subjects
      indicate a stress protective effect. However, since these findings mainly focus on effects
      during or immediately after a Taiji training session, their study designs and outcome
      measures are not comparable with existing stress prevention efficacy studies and their sample
      sizes are generally too small, the present available results remain inconclusive. Also, the
      impact of a Taiji training on psychosocial stress has not been assessed so far.

      Objective:

      The objective of this study is to assess the efficacy of a 12 week Taiji training as a stress
      prevention program by measuring psychosocial stress reactivity in a laboratory setting,
      subjective perception of stress and coping-resources of 70 healthy subjects in daily life.

      Methods:

      The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) will be used to measure the psychobiological stress
      reactivity. Salivary cortisol, alpha amylase, heart rate and heart rate variability will be
      measured in each subject to asses stress reactivity, Also, the primary appraisal secondary
      appraisal (PASA) questionnaire and the multidimensional mood questionnaire (MDBF) will be
      used to assess psychological stress reactivity, and a visual analogue scale (VAS) to measure
      perceived stressfulness.

      Additionally to the TSST setting, pre-, post-intervention and 2 months follow up measurements
      will be taken. The following tools will be used: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Stress
      Reactivity Scale (SRS)(to assess perceived stress), and self-efficacy-expectancy
      questionnaire (SWE), questionnaire for measuring wellbeing (FEW-16), Freiburg mindfulness
      inventory (FMI) and self compassion scale (SCS) (to assess perceived coping resources).
    

Intervention name(s): Taiji training
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): Taiji training during 12 weeks (twice a week for 1 hour) (Sept. 6th till Nov. 25th 2010). The first 18 sequences of a series of 37 movements of the short form Yang style Taiji will be taught. The focus will be on memorizing the series of movements, developing a regular training routine and working on body alignment and flow of the movements.
Other intervention name(s): Taiji; Tai Chi; Tai Chi Chuan; Taijiquan
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: tai ji; psychosocial stress; primary prevention; Trier Social Stress Test; salivary cortisol; salivary alpha amylase; heart rate variability; stress management