Abstract
BackgroundThe physical and mental health of college students tends to continuously decline around the world. Since they are in a significant transition period which presents opportunities and challenges in health promotion, it is important to improve their health in this period. As a traditional Chinese exercise form which combines movements with breath and mind, Baduanjin may be one of the selectable effective exercises. However, evidence of Baduanjin exercise for college students has not been completely established. The primary aim of this trial is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Baduanjin exercise for physical and mental health of college students through a rigorous randomization, parallel-controlled design.Method/designWe will conduct a randomized, single-blind, parallel-controlled trial. A total of 222 college students from Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine who meet the eligibility criteria will be recruited and randomly allocated into Baduanjin training or usual exercise control group. Baduanjin training will last 12 weeks (1 h per day, 5 days per week). The physical and psychological outcomes, including lumbar muscle strength, lumbar proprioception function, physical fitness, as well as self-reported symptom intensity, stress, self-esteem, mood, quality of life, quality of sleep, and adverse events, will be evaluated by blinded outcome assessors at baseline, 13 weeks (at the end of intervention), and 25 weeks (after the 12-week follow-up period).DiscussionThis protocol presents an objective design of a randomized, single-blind trial that aims to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Baduanjin exercise for physical and mental health of college students. If the outcome is positive, the results will provide higher-quality evidence to better inform the college students regarding their selection about whether to receive such exercise.Trial registrationChinese Clinical Trial Registry: ChiCTR-TRC-13003329Registration date: 18 July, 2013.
Highlights
The physical and mental health of college students tends to continuously decline around the world
This protocol presents an objective design of a randomized, single-blind trial that aims to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Baduanjin exercise for physical and mental health of college students
Previous studies have indicated that a Baduanjin exercise program can improve blood lipid metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and sleep quality for community older adults [39,41,42,43], but there is currently a lack of evidence regarding the associations between Baduanjin exercise and physical fitness, as well as self-reported symptom intensity, mood, self-esteem, and self-efficacy
Summary
Baduanjin exercise is one of the most common forms of Chinese traditional exercise. It is broken down into eight separate sections, and each one focuses on a different physical area and Qi meridian [38]. Through a 12-week intervention with Baduanjin exercise, results from a range of primary and secondary outcome measures will provide the clear information about difference in physical and psychological outcomes between Banduanjin exercise and usual exercise control groups In this trial, we performed the rigorous randomized, parallelcontrolled design with a large sample (n = 222) to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Baduanjin exercise. The participants and exercise coaches are not blinded and the psychological outcome measures are participants’ self-reported, the assessment of the related physical fitness outcomes, lumbar muscle strength, lumbar proprioception function, and the statistical analyses will be performed by research staffs blinded to the treatment allocation. All participants will come from one and the same medical university, which may decrease the sample representativeness This is the first randomized controlled trial to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of Baduanjin exercise for the physical and mental health of a college student population. All authors contributed to drafting the manuscript and have read and approved the final manuscript
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