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Effects of Baduanjin exercise in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients after chemoradiotherapy: a randomized controlled trial

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Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the effects of traditional Chinese Baduanjin Qigong exercises on the physical and psychological recovery of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma after chemoradiotherapy.

Methods

Eighty-eight nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients who had completed chemoradiotherapy were randomly divided into the Baduanjin intervention group (n = 44) and the control group (n = 44). Patients in the intervention group practised Baduanjin exercise for 12 weeks, with the frequency of 40 min a day and 5 days a week after discharge from the hospital. Participants in the control group received usual care. Outcome indicators included quality of life (QOL), complications, cancer-related fatigue (CRF), sleep quality, anxiety, and depression. The intention-to-treat and per-protocol populations were compared using univariate analysis of variance. Partial eta squared was used as a measure of the effect size.

Results

A total of 75 patients completed the study. In the intention-to-treat analysis, after 12 weeks of exercise intervention, there were significant increases in the global FACT-H&N (95% CI = 2.09 to 11.47, ηp2 = 0.088), social/family well-being (95% CI = 0.13 to 2.26, ηp2 = 0.055), emotional well-being (95% CI = 0.34 to 2.44, ηp2 = 0.074), and head and neck cancer subscale scores (95% CI = 0.17 to 3.86, ηp2 = 0.052) in the Baduanjin group compared with the control group at the 12th week. In the per-protocol analysis, there were significant increases in the global FACT-H&N (95% CI = 4.11 to 11.75, ηp2 = 0.190), physical well-being (95% CI: 0.50 to 3.04, ηp2 = 0.096), social/family well-being (95% CI: 0.32 to 2.15, ηp2 = 0.090), emotional well-being (95% CI: 0.60 to 2.53, ηp2 = 0.125), functional well-being (95% CI: 0.25 to 2.49, ηp2 = 0.075), and head and neck cancer subscale (95% CI: 1.08 to 4.08, ηp2 = 0.139) scores in the Baduanjin group compared with the control group at the 12th week.

Conclusion

The findings in this study indicate that Baduanjin exercise is an effective and appropriate intervention for improving quality of life and is worthy of recommendation and implementation by oncology nurses in the rehabilitation process of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

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Data availability

Not applicable.

Abbreviations

CRF:

Cancer-related fatigue

QOL:

Quality of life

NPC:

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma

CI:

Confidence interval

η p 2 :

Partial eta squared

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the participants in our study as well as the clinical staff for their help and support. We thank Xu Shi for assisting in the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China

    Liying Wen, Xingyu Chen, Yuanyuan Cui, Miao Zhang & Xinghua Bai

  2. Shenyang, China

    Xinghua Bai

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Liying Wen, Xingyu Chen, Yuanyuan Cui, and Miao Zhang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Liying Wen. Xinghua Bai is accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xinghua Bai.

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The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee at the Institutional Review Board in the First Hospital of China Medical University, in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Wen, L., Chen, X., Cui, Y. et al. Effects of Baduanjin exercise in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients after chemoradiotherapy: a randomized controlled trial. Support Care Cancer 31, 79 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-07548-8

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