Authors (including presenting author) :
Lam YC(1), Ao YH(1), Mok YC(1), Ho WL(1), Au Yeung TL(2)
Affiliation :
(1)Physiotherapy Department, Pok Oi Hospital ;(2)Patient Resource Centre, Pok Oi Hospital
Introduction :
Musculoskeletal (MSK) pain has hugely burdened the public health care system in Hong Kong and decreased the quality of life of patients.
Physiotherapy Tai Ji Xiao Jin Zhong 物理治療太極小金鐘 is an exercise combining traditional Tai Chi, elongation of the body and modern exercise physiology.
During the pandemic, there was an increasing trend in the use of telecare in NTWC for executing exercise classes.
In POH, the physiotherapy department had recently collaborated with PRC (Patient Resource Center) to provide bimodal exercise classes (supervised face-to-face Physiotherapy Tai Ji Xiao Jin Zhong class and telecare self-help group class).
Objectives :
The objective of this study is 1) to investigate the effectiveness of Physiotherapy Tai Ji Xiao Jin Zhong exercise class on chronic MSK pain 2) to promote the self-efficacy of patients by bimodal exercise class.
Methodology :
Convenient sampling of patients with chronic MSK pain was recruited into the Physiotherapy Tai Ji Xiao Jin Zhong class from Nov 2021 to Oct 2022.
Each class contained 4 weekly sessions supervised by certified Tai Ji Xiao Jin Zhong physiotherapist.
NPRS (Numeric Pain Rating Scale), NGRCS (Numeric Global Rating of Change Scale) and sit-and-reach test were measured as outcomes before and after the face-to-face class.
Patients who had completed the Physiotherapy Tai Ji Xiao Jin Zhong class were encouraged to join the telecare self-help group class.
Follow-up phone surveys were conducted for patients who attended the self-help group class.
Result & Outcome :
Result
Total of 12 face-to-face classes with 122 patients (20 males & 102 females) were completed.
There were 94, 21 and 7 patients with back, neck and other MSK pain respectively.
There was a significant decrease in NPRS in both three conditions. (back: p<0.001; neck: p=0.02; other MSK p=0.015)
There was significant improvement in sit-and-reach tests in both back and neck pain groups. (back: p<0.001; neck: p=0.001; other MSK: p=0.201)
Overall, patients claimed there was a subjective improvement of 3.5 out of 10 rated by NGRCS.
Total of 6 patients were referred to self-help group class. The numbers of sessions attended varies from 2 to 34.
There were few advantages of this bimodal service feedbacked by patients involved:
Empower patient self-management (83% agree; 17% neutral; 0% disagree)
Able to execute exercise at any convenient places (100% agree; 0% neutral; 0% disagree)
More motivated for patient to do exercise in a group (66.7% agree; 0% neutral; 33% disagree)
Better Infection Control using telecare (83% agree; 0% neutral; 17% disagree)
Conclusion
Physiotherapy Tai Ji Xiao Jin Zhong class is effective to improve chronic MSK pain level and increase body flexibility.
This study also provided a pathway for patients to further their practice of Tai Ji Xiao Jin Zhong via telecare.
A bimodal service of face-to-face classes and telecare self-help group has become a new trend of service delivery under the pandemic.
Further development on bimodal service is worthwhile to consider.
