Objective. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of a 12-week program of therapeutic Tai Chi on the motor function and physical function of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease patients (PDs). Methods. The participants were 22 clinically stable PDs in Hoehn-Yahr stages 1-2 randomly assigned to a therapeutic Tai Chi group (TTC, ) or a control group (CON, ). Two subjects in control group did not complete the study for personal reasons. TTC was performed three days a week (60？min/session). Motor symptoms by the UPDRS were assessed, and tests of physical function were administered before and after the 12-week trial. Results. The TTC group, as compared to the CON group, showed changes in the mentation, behavior, mood, and motor scales of the UPDRS ( , , resp.), with no significant main effects on the activities of daily living scale (ADL). However, there was a significant interaction between the time and intervention group on ADL ( ). There were no significant main effects for any of the physical function variables. There were significant interaction effects in balance and agility ( , resp.). Conclusions. This study showed that TTC training had modest positive effects on the functional status of Parkinson’s disease patients. 1. Introduction The management of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is often enhanced by complementary rehabilitation strategies, such as exercise. For example, studies of resistance [1–3] and endurance [4–7] exercise training have improved balance, gait, postural stability, and physical function and reduced falling in people with PD. Tai Chi, a traditional Chinese martial art that involves meditation and slow, graceful movements, is often recommended to reduce stress, improve mood, flexibility, physical function, and balance [8–10]. Studies of Tai Chi in people with chronic disease including Parkinson’s disease and old people have supported the potential for benefit, with gains in the quality of life, postural stability, gait, physical function, immune function, cardiometabolic disease risk factors, and other health-related parameters [4, 11–19]. However, research on the effectiveness of Tai Chi is contradictory due to inconsistencies in the implementation of the Tai Chi movements, limited samples, and the lack of randomized control trials. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a randomized control trial of therapeutic Tai Chi training on improving the motor function and physical function of Parkinson’s disease patients. 2. Methods The ethics committee of the Asan Medical Center approved this study. All
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