RERC RecTech State of the Science Conference Call for Papers/Abstracts/Submissions
The inaugural Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center RecTech State of the Science Conference will be held May 30-31, 2006, in Denver, Colorado. The goal of this conference is to bring together the most current research, developments, equipment, and applications in exercise technology for persons with disabilities. Cross-disciplinary submissions in other fields are welcome.
Contact Blythe Hiss at sbonne2@uic.edu, or go to http://www.ncpad.org/694/3223/2005-09-01#10 for information on submitting an abstract.
T'ai Chi Exercise for Fibromyalgia
Taggert, H. M., Arsianian, C. L., Bae, S., & Singh, K. (2003). Effects of t'ai chi exercise for fibromyalgia symptoms and health related quality of life. Orthopaedic Nursing, 22, 353-360.
Fibromyalgia (FM) is among the most common musculoskeletal disorders, affecting approximately 6 million Americans. The researchers hypothesized that there would be positive changes in pre-exercise to post-exercise scores for FM symptoms, and positive changes in pre-exercise to post-exercise scores for health status after six weeks of twice-weekly, 1-hour classes in Yang-style T'ai Chi. The participants were 37 volunteers from a FM support group.
The results of the study showed that there was a statistically significant improvement from pre-test to post-test for all problem areas including quality of life and weight loss. While there were no statistical changes in work missed, job ability, fatigue, and depression, the researchers noted that they all showed positive clinical improvement of at least 20%.
Read the complete abstract at http://www.ncpad.org/300/1869/Effects~of~t~~8217~ai~chi~exercise~on~fibromyalgia~
symptoms~and~health~related~quality~of~life~.