RESEARCH ARTICLE The Efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medical Exercise for Parkinson’s Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background and Objective Several studies assessed the efficacy of traditional Chinese medical exercise in the man-agement of Parkinson’s disease (PD), but its role remained controversial. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate the evidence on the effect of traditional Chi-nese medical exercise for PD. Methods Seven English and Chinese electronic databases, up to October 2014, were searched to identify relevant studies. The PEDro scale was employed to assess the methodological quality of eligible studies. Meta-analysis was performed by RevMan 5.1 software. Results Fifteen trials were included in the review. Tai Chi and Qigong were used as assisting phar-macological treatments of PD in the previous studies. Tai Chi plus medication showed greater improvements in motor function (standardized mean difference, SMD,-0.57; 95% confidence intervals, CI,-1.11 to-0.04), Berg balance scale (BBS, SMD,-1.22; 95 % CI-1.65 to-0.80), and time up and go test (SMD,-1.06; 95 % CI-1.44 to-0.68). Compared wit