Tai Chi practice and change in exercise habits in survivors of acute coronary syndromes: Is mindfulness a possible mechanism?


Author: Elena Salmoirago-Blotcher1, Dyuti Trivedi2, Shira Dunsiger3

Affiliation: <sup>1</sup> The Miriam Hospital, Providence, RI, United States; Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, United States. Electronic address: Elena_Salmoirago-Blotcher@brown.edu.

<sup>2</sup> The Miriam Hospital, Providence, RI, United States.

<sup>3</sup> School of Public Health, Brown University, United States.
Conference/Journal: Explore (NY)
Date published: 2020 Sep 15
Other:
  Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2020.09.001.   ,  Word Count: 253  
    Background:

Mechanisms by which mind-body practice may improve exercise behaviors in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) are unknown.



Purpose:

To identify predictors of exercise behaviors developed in response to a tai chi intervention.



Methods:

We conducted an exploratory analysis using data from a pilot study of tai chi for physically inactive patients with CHD. We used Latent Class Analysis to identify patterns of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) (accelerometry-assessed, average min/week) over the 9-month study period. Logistic regression was used to evaluate associations between MVPA patterns and changes in exercise self-efficacy (Self-efficacy for exercise scale), social support (Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support), resilience (Brief Resilience Survey), and mindfulness (Five Facets of Mindfulness) at 6 months.



Results:

Data supported a 3-class model over time: 31% of participants were in class 1 (high and sustained MVPA, > 200 min/week), 21% were in class 2 (low and decreasing MVPA, < 100 > 50 min/week), and 48% in class 3 (low and stable MVPA, < 50 min/week). Higher mindfulness scores at 6 months were associated with a high and sustained MVPA pattern (b = 1.89, SE = 0.15, p = .01). Social support was inversely associated with low and decreasing MVPA (b = -0.72, SE = 0.34, p = .04). No associations were noted with the other factors.



Conclusions:

Improvements in mindfulness were associated with a distinct high and sustained MVPA pattern. Although only hypothesis-generating, these findings suggest that improvements in mindfulness skills could be a mechanism for the possible effect of Tai Chi in the promotion of MVPA.



Keywords: Cardiovascular disease; Mind-body practice; Mindfulness; Physical activity; Tai Chi.



PMID: 32978061 DOI: 10.1016/j.explore.2020.09.001