Qigong Stress Reduction in Hospital Staff

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a qigong training program in reducing stress in hospital staff. Methods: Subjects were randomly assigned to a 6-week intervention of either qigong practice (n! 16) or a wait-ing list (n! 21). The primary measure of stress was the Perceived Stress Scale. Secondary measures included the Short Form 36 (SF-36) quality-of-life measure and a 100-mm analog pain scale. Results: The qigong group demonstrated a statistically significant reduction of perceived stress compared to the control group (p! 0.02). On the Social Interaction subscale of the SF-36, the qigong group demonstrated greater improvement compared to controls (p! 0.04). Within-groups analyses demonstrated that the qigong group (p! 0.03), but not the control group, experienced a significant reduction of pain intensity. A regression analysis demonstrated an association between higher baseline stress levels and greater improvement within the qigong group (R2! 0.34; p! 0.02). Conclusions: These results suggest that short-term exposure to qigong was effective in reducing stress in hos-pital staff. Further studies are needed to evaluate the possible effectiveness of qigong in reducing pain and in improving quality of life. 93