Tai Chi Is More Effective Than Balance and Strengthening Exercises for Fall Prevention

Falls in older adults often are preventable with proper training. In this study, researchers in Oregon randomized 670 older adults (mean age, 78; mostly white women) at high risk for falling to one of three interventions:

• Tai ji quan (better known as tai chi)

• Multimodal exercise that incorporates strengthening, aerobic training, balance training and flexibility exercises

• Stretching (control group)

All interventions consisted of 60-minute sessions, held twice weekly for 24 weeks, with progressively increasing intensity as participants adapted. The cost per person for either tai chi or multimodal exercise was roughly US$900. At 6-months the tai chi group experienced significantly fewer falls than the multimodal group and the control group (11 vs.…