Frailty is associated with poor outcomes among older adults with hypertension and complicates its pharmacological management. Here, University of California San Diego and University of Miami assessed whether 12-weeks of instructor-guided, group Tai Chi practice improved frailty relative to Healthy Aging Practice-centered Education (HAP-E) classes in older adults with hypertension.
Secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial in San Diego County, USA, of 167 community-dwelling individuals aged over 60 years (70% female), defined as non-frail (66%) or frail (34%) based on 53-item deficit accumulation frailty index (FI). Linear mixed-effects models were used to assess pre-to-post intervention differences in FI and logistic regression to explore differential odds of clinically meaningful FI change.
One hundred thirty-one participants completed post-intervention assessments. Frailty decreased pre-to-post intervention in the Tai Chi group, but not the HAP-E arm, despite no significant group differences between the two. Furthermore, greater odds of improved frailty index were observed for frail participants in the Tai Chi group, but not the HAP-E arm. Subgroup analysis indicated treatment effects in the Tai Chi group were attributed to frail participants, which was not the case in the HAP-E arm. Frail participants were no more likely to drop-out of the study than non-frail (71% vs. 69% retained).
Conclusions:Twelve weeks of twice-weekly guided TC practice was well-tolerated, associated with decreases in frailty, and increased odds of clinically meaningful frailty index improvement at post-intervention.
This study is published by Aging clinical and experimental research in July 2023.
