PURPOSE: This study was done to analyze the effects of Tai Chi on fall-related risk factors through meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials published in English and Korean between 2000 and 2010. METHODS: Using health related database and hand search of references and Google, 28 randomized studies were collected from doctoral dissertation and published peer reviewed articles. The Comprehensive Meta-analysis version 2.0 was used for the analysis. RESULTS: The effect sizes for Tai Chi for 3 months were significant with ES=0.54 for static balance, ES=0.24 for dynamic balance, ES=0.69 for balance measured by scale, and ES=0.40 for flexibility, ES=0.48 for muscle strength, ES=0.71 for ADL, and ES=0.37 for fear of falling. Also, the effect sizes of Tai Chi for 6 months were significant for most fall-related variables. The 6 month data for flexibility was not analyzed since only one study was published. CONCLUSION: The analysis of studies of randomized clinical trials indicate that Tai Chi is effective in improving balance, flexibility, muscle strength, activities of daily living, and fear of falling when applied for 3 or 6 months. The findings provide the objective evidence to apply Tai Chi as a fall preventive intervention.
Accidental Falls/*prevention & control ; Activities of Daily Living ; Databases, Factual ; Fear ; Humans ; Muscle Strength ; Program Evaluation ; Risk Factors ; *Tai Ji

Purpose: This meta-analysis aimed to analyze the effects of smoking prevention programs for young adolescents at early smoking stages to identify the appropriate characteristics of prevention programs for this population. Methods: Searches of health-related databases and Google Scholar were conducted, and 23 randomized studies were included in the analysis. The main outcome variable was smoking behavior. The analysis was conducted using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software (version 3.0). Results: Smoking prevention programs significantly reduced smoking behaviors (OR=0.85, 95% CI=0.77~0.93). School-based programs (OR=0.79, 95% CI=0.75~0.83), programs by trained teachers or educators (OR=0.77, 95% CI=0.71~0.83), high-intensity programs (OR=0.82, 95% CI=0.75~0.91), and programs in an in-school setting (OR=0.82, 95% CI=0.74~0.90) had the most significant effect on reducing smoking behavior. Conclusion For young adolescents, smoking prevention programs are most effective when they are school-based or highintensity programs, and when conducted by teachers or educators with proper training. Further studies are required since there was insufficient research to explore the effect of web-based programs or family-centered programs on adolescent smokers.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify factors influencing health-related quality of life depending on time sitting by elders living alone. Methods: This was a secondary data analysis study of the 7th Korea Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016~2018). The participants in the study were 1,499 elderly people living alone who were 65 years of age or older. Results: The average time sitting for elders living alone was 8.93 hours. If they had more than eight hours of sedentary time, their physical and psychological health conditions and quality of life were lower than those in the group that had less than 8 hours. The factors influencing quality of life were age, household income, central obesity, and subjective health status for elders with sitting-time within 8 hours (R2=.28, p<.001), and household income, economic activity, and subjective health status in elders with sitting-time over 8 hours (R2=.33, p<.001). Conclusion There were differences in factors affecting the quality of life depending on the length of sitting-time for elders living alone. Depending on the length of sitting-time, it is necessary to establish nursing interventions to promote physical and psychological health to improve the quality of life of elders living alone.