Subject participants with end stage osteoarthritis knee were enrolled into a customised multidisciplinary education program that consisted of one hour healthcare education seminars followed by another hour of 8 Section Brocade (Baduanjin) sitting Tai Chi classes for 4 consecutive weeks.

8 Section Brocade (Baduanjin) sitting Tai Chi classes + Healthcare Education seminars

The international Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form is designed to measure physical activity, and standardize measures of health-related physical activity behavior through 8 questions and divide patients into 3 activity groups. The health-enhancing physical activity level of category is for those people who either engaged in (1) ≥ 1500 MET-minutes on vigorous-intensity activity for at least three days, OR (2) at a combination of walking, moderate to vigorous intensity activities accumulative performance to ≥ 3000 MET-minutes per week. The Minimally Active level category is considered at the enrollment of (3) ≥ 20 mins vigorous activity for at least three days, OR (4) moderate-intensity activity or walking for ≥ 30 mins for at least five days, OR (5) any combination of walking, moderate/vigorous-intensity activities for at least 600 MET-minutes per week.

The secondary outcome was shown by the symptoms and physical functional disability scores represented by the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and the quality of life of participants represented by the self-rated questionnaire SF-36v2. WOMAC is a widely used standardized questionnaire to evaluate the condition of patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and hip, in three different domains for pain (score range 0 to 20), stiffness (0 to 8) and physical function (0 to 68).