Efficacy of Taiji Training as a Program for Stress Prevention - a Randomized, Waiting List Controlled Longitudinal Study With Healthy Subjects
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Sponsor
- University of Bern
- Enrollment
- 70
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Area under the curve (AUC) with respect to increase of salivary cortisol titer
Study Overview
Brief 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:
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Prevention
- Masking
- None
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 18 Years to 50 Years (Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •ready to participate in the Taiji-intervention group as well as in the Waiting list control group
- •mentally healthy
- •physically healthy
- •fluent in German (written and spoken)
Exclusion Criteria
- •previous practical experience with Taiji-exercises
- •previous practical experience with the Trier Social Stress Test
- •being absent for more than one week between Sept. 6th and Nov. 25th 2010
- •daily alcohol consumption more than two alcoholic drinks
- •daily tobacco consumption more than five cigarettes per day
- •any kind of drug consumption
- •pregnancy
- •intake of hormonal compounds i.e. birth control pill and hormon replacement therapy
Arms & Interventions
Taiji
35 healthy participants will regularly during 12 weeks attend Taiji training classes twice a week for one hour. (Sept. 6th till Nov. 25th 2010).
Intervention: Taiji training (Other)
waiting list control group
35 healthy participants are not allowed to attend any Taiji training during the intervention period (Sept. 6th till Nov. 25th 2010).
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Area under the curve (AUC) with respect to increase of salivary cortisol titer
Time Frame: durring the Trier Social Stress Test
saliva samples will be taken 8 times during the Trier Social Stresstest. Salivary cortisol reactivity in response to this psychosocial stress test will be calculated by aggregating cortisol data of all 8 saliva samples in an AUC value with respect to increase.
Secondary Outcomes
- salivary alpha amylase reactivity to psychosocial stress(8 times during the Trier Social Stress Test (which lasts 2h))
- heart rate(continuously during the Trier Social Stress Test (which lasts 2h))
- heart rate variability(continuously during the Trier Social Stress Test (which lasts 2h))
- perceived stress(before, after the Taiji training and 2 months follow up)
- self-efficacy-expectancy(before, after the Taiji training and 2 months follow up)
- wellbeing(before, after the Taiji training and 2 months follow up)
- Mindfulness(before, after the Taiji training and 2 months follow up)
- Self Compassion(before, after the Taiji training and 2 months follow up)