Abstract
Purpose: Qigong training has recently become a popular form of supportive care for cancer patients. Many breast cancer patients today use qigong as an alternative method to relieve the symptoms of the disease and its treatment. The aim of this review is to evaluate the effectiveness of qigong training as a form of breast cancer care. Methods: Relevant studies were retrieved from a search of electronic databases and evaluated using the Jadad scale and the Levels of Evidence criteria proposed by the Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine. Results: Eight studies were investigated. Four were randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and the rest were clinical controlled trials. Seven studies investigated the effects of qigong training on physical and psychosocial functioning, and five studies investigated biomedical outcomes. Markers such as quality of life, arterial resistance and shoulder isokinetic muscular strength indicated that qigong significantly improved physical and psychosocial functioning. However, conflicting results were presented for the biomedical effects of qigong, and no significant evidence was provided for its effects on C-reactive protein level, blood-cell count or immune functioning. Conclusions: As the studies reviewed showed several methodological and design limitations, it is still too early to draw conclusions on the contribution of qigong to the rehabilitation care of breast cancer survivors. Future researchers in this area should conduct more rigorously designed studies based on large-scale RCTs.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-7 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Nursing and Palliative Care |
Volume | 2 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Open Access - Access Right Statement
©2016 Leung JCY. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Keywords
- breast
- cancer
- qi gong
- systematic reviews (medical research)