EFFECTIVENESS OF TAI-CHI EXERCISE ON MUSCLE STRENGTH, BALANCE AND MEMORY IN ELDERLY PEOPLE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Background: Ageing is commonly associated with reductions in muscle strength, balance and cognitive performance, which may affect mobility and independence. Exercise-based interventions may help address these changes. Objective: To compare the effects of Tai Chi and conventional balance exercise on muscle strength, balance and memory/cognitive function in elderly people.Methods: 37 adults aged 65–85 years participated. Group A received Tai Chi exercise (n=17), and Group B received conventional balance exercise (n=20). Both groups undertook supervised exercise three times per week for four weeks. Muscle strength was assessed using Manual Muscle Testing (MMT), balance using the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), and cognitive function using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Within-group comparisons used the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and between-group comparisons used the Mann–Whitney U test.Results: BBS scores increased from 30.47±5.87 to 34.59±6.51 in Group A and from 30.85±6.11 to 40.50±5.75 in Group B. MMSE scores increased from 23.12±1.76 to 23.88±2.06 in Group A and from 24.05±1.50 to 26.85±1.50 in Group B. Within-group changes were reported as statistically significant (p=0.001). Post-intervention scores favoured Group B for BBS (p=0.011) and MMSE (p=0.001). MMT results also indicated improvement in lower-limb strength in both groups, with greater post-intervention scores for several hip muscle measures in Group B.Conclusion: Both interventions were associated with improvements in measured outcomes over four weeks. Conventional balance exercise showed greater improvement in balance and cognitive scores and in several reported lower-limb strength measures. Larger studies with longer follow-up and complete muscle-specific statistical reporting are needed.