Objective: This study was to evaluate the effects of Qigong on clinical motor symptoms, walking ability, and balance of patients with Parkinson’s disease. Data sources: Seven electronic databases (MEDLINE, Web of Science, CINAHL, SportDiscus, Scopus, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang Database) were searched from inception to June 28, 2020. Methods: Two reviewers independently selected and extracted the data from studies with randomized controlled trial, and effect sizes were calculated by employing random-effect models with 95% confidential interval (CI). We used Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale to evaluate the quality of included studies. Results: A total of seven studies with 325 participants (180 males and 145 females) were included in this meta-analysis. Results of this meta-analysis showed that Qigong had significantly positive effects on motor symptoms ( SMD = 0.59, 95% CI [0.24, 0.93]), walking ability ( SMD = 0.78, 95% CI [0.10, 1.47]), and balance ( SMD = 0.72, 95% CI [0.23, 1.20]) in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Subgroup analysis showed Qigong exercise had significant difference on improving motor symptoms and walking ability compared to passive control ( P < 0.01), and no significant difference compared to active control. Subgroup analysis of Qigong exercise revealed a significant difference on balance compared to both active and passive control ( P < 0.05). In addition, meta-regression result indicated that the effect of Qigong exercise on motor symptoms was influenced by age. Conclusion: The findings from current meta-analysis supported Qigong exercise as a beneficial alternative therapy may contribute to increasing motor function, walking ability, and balance for patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Parents of children with ASD experience a higher incidence of mental health difficulties, including stress, depression, and anxiety, than parents of children without ASD. According to studies related to ASD, parent–child physical activity programs are an effective approach to encourage both parents and their children with ASD to exercise together, thus improving the mental health of parents due to this interactive family activity. The purpose of the present study was to explore the effects of this web-based parent–child physical activity program on the mental health of parents of children with ASD. A total of 94 parent–child pairs consented to participate in this study, and 75 parent–child pairs completed the study. Three instruments—DASS-21, PSI-4-SF, and WHOQOL-26—were used to measure mental health, parental stress, and quality of life, respectively. A randomized controlled trial design was implemented to examine the effectiveness of the 10-week web-based parent–child physical activity program on improving the mental health of parents of children with ASD. The results showed that after the 10-week parent–child physical activity program, there were significant differences in overall DASS-21 and PSI-4-SF for the experimental group, compared with control group (p < 0.05), which indicated that the parent–child physical activity program has a positive influence on mental health in parents of children with ASD. One sub-area of WHOQOL-26 between the experimental and control groups across pre-/post-testing intervals also showed greater reductions in the item of psychological health (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the findings demonstrated the efficacy of the web-based parent–child physical activity program for improving mental health in parents of children with ASD.
Animal-assisted therapy has become a fast-growing and effective approach for remediating core impairments of children with ASD; however, recent systematic review studies on the effects of AAT in children with ASD have some limitations, including referral to a variety of animal-assisted interventions rather than to horseback-riding therapy alone and the absence of any meta-analysis in systematic reviews. A complete systematic review of the studies that describe the use of THR as an intervention is needed to specifically target the core impairments of children with ASD. The purpose of this study was to employ the systematic review method to synthesize research findings regarding the effects of THR programs on the social interaction and communication skills of children with ASD. We conducted a structured search in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We searched for potentially relevant studies in five databases (Web of Science, PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus) from inception until February 2022. In addition, we manually searched the bibliographies of the included studies to find articles that might otherwise have been missed. We considered articles eligible or ineligible if they satisfied specific inclusion or exclusion criteria. Our results showed that the THR program is an effective direct and alternative therapeutic program that can considerably improve the social behaviors and communication skills of children with ASD and can effectively impact autistic impairments in areas such as social awareness, social cognition, social motivation, and social communication. These findings are in line with those of previous studies; however, we did not find statistical evidence of any effect of THR on the autistic behaviors of irritability, stereotypy, and inappropriate speech. In conclusion, the findings produced by this meta-analysis study provide evidence that THR programs can considerably improve the social behaviors and communication skills of children with ASD.
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