A model of benefits associated with successful aging derived from qualitative analyses of Taiji-Qigong (Tai Chi-Chi Kung) research on older adults

Successful aging has been associated with "wellness," a holistic concept that includes physical health but also encompasses environmental, emotional, spiritual, social, and cultural aspects of an individual's life. Such holistic concepts are notoriously difficult to measure quantitatively, but may be explored using qualitative statistical methods.

Broad classes of meditative exercises termed "Qigong (Ch'i Kung)," of which Taiji (T'ai Chi) is one example, have been anecdotally reported to yield holistic wellness benefits dating back to the middle of the first millennium B.C. in China. We performed a qualitative analysis of a 6-month Taiji-Qigong (TQ) intervention for older adults. It is based on interviews conducted for the purpose of exploring the subjective meanings of participants' experiences. Our goal was to document accurately and fully their experiences and to construct a model useful for describing and understanding those experiences. The participants interviewed reported not only simple physical or mental benefits, but also complex, holistic outcomes combining five dimensions of experience: physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual. We conceived a Lotus diagram model to visually represent these experiences in layers of increasing complexity: simple, complex, immersion (where the relevance of TQ permeates many aspects of life), and integration (where TQ is perceived as a transforming experience yielding positive lifestyle changes).

TQ appears to generate effects in select older adult participants that are holistic, integrative, and broad in scope. Our results support the notion that wellness is a complex phenomenon that, as lived, is inseparable from the mind/body/spirit continuum of a person's experience of herself/himself.