Effect of health Qigong on rehabilitation of stroke patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of health Qigong on the rehabilitation of hemiplegic patients after stroke. Methods: The randomized controlled trials on health Qigong intervention in rehabilitation after stroke were searched in eight databases: PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, CBM, CNKI, Wanfang Database, and VIP Database from the inception to February 2022, and the data were analyzed using RevMan 5.3 software. Results: A total of 17 studies involving 1146 hemiplegic patients after stroke were included. Meta-analysis results showed that the motor function and activities of daily living in the intervention group were better than those in the control group at different intervention times (intervention time <3 months and 3 months–24 weeks) (P < 0.01). When the intervention time was <3 months, the improvement of balance function in the intervention group was better than that in the control group (P < 0.01). However, when the intervention time was 3 months–24 weeks, there was no significant difference in the balance function between the intervention group and the control group (P = 0.10). Conclusion: Health Qigong has a positive effect on the improvement of motor function and activities of daily living in hemiplegic patients after stroke, but the improvement of balance function is not sure. Due to the low overall quality of the included literature and the heterogeneity of some research results, more rigorous randomized controlled trials are needed to verify its efficacy.