Purpose: Determine if inter-individual response differences (IIRD) are present with respect to tai chi as a treatment for high blood pressure in adults with hypertension.
Methods: Using the aggregate data meta-analytic approach, seven randomized controlled trials (RCTs) representing 503 hypertensive participants from a recent meta-analysis of tai chi on resting systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were included. Tai chi and control group change outcome standard deviations treated as point estimates for both resting systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were used to calculate true IIRD from each study. The inverse variance heterogeneity (IVhet) model was used to pool results.
Results: Among adults with hypertension, statistically and clinically significant reductions in resting systolic blood pressure (X‾, -8.68 mmHg, 95% CI, -9.55 to -7.81) and DBP (X‾, -4.42 mmHg, 95% CI, -5.71 to -3.13) were observed as an effect of practicing tai chi. In the same population, neither statistically nor clinically significant true IIRD was observed for resting SBP (X‾, -0.47 mmHg, 95% CI -5.13 to 5.08) while statistically, but not clinically significant differences were observed for resting diastolic blood pressure (X‾, 1.97 mmHg, 95% CI, 1.02 to 2.60).
Conclusions: The current findings suggest that reductions in resting systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were observed.
Reference: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35870250/