Fig 1.
CONSORT 2010 flow diagram containing details of participant enrolment and progress through the RCT.
Fig 2.
Illustration of Shuai Shou Gong (SSG) exercise.
For the first four arm swings the participant maintains their full height and on the fifth swing bends at the knees, once in synchrony with the backward swing and a second time in synchrony with the forward swing. This same cycle of five arm swings is repeated throughout the period for which the exercise is performed.
Table 1.
Baseline demographic information (mean ± SD) for participants in the Exercise Group and Control Group.
Fig 3.
Plots of changes in the outcome measures for subjects in the Exercise Group (filled circles) and Control Group (open circles) during the 8-week SSG training program.
Error bars indicate mean ± SD with units indicated in parentheses. The Posture measures C7WD and SH are plotted in (a) and (d), respectively. The Flexibility measures BSL and BSR, are plotted in (b) and (e), and CSRL and CSRR are plotted in (c) and (f), respectively. The Gait measure TUG is plotted in (g). The Cognition measures BADL and RSES are plotted in (h) and (i), respectively. The direction of the short red arrow denotes the direction of change that is predicted to represent a beneficial effect and the direction of the short blue arrow denotes a deterioration.
Table 2.
Nine outcome measures recorded at four time points, namely prior to, during (i.e. after 1 day and after 4 weeks) and at the end of (i.e. after 8 weeks) of SSG training in the Exercise Group (EG), and at corresponding times in the Control Group (CG).
The measures include C7WD, SH, BSL, BSR, CSRL, CSRR, TUG, BADL and BSES. Values are shown as mean and SD with units indicated in parentheses. BADL and BSES indicate score values for the relevant questionnaire.