Clinical motor coordination, postural control, and simple reaction speed following a 12-week Khon Kaen Qigong program in older adults with mild cognitive impairment: a controlled pre–post study
Guang Yang, Junhui Zhu, Junwu Xu, Yueqiu Li · Scientific Reports · 2026
This study examined whether a 12-week Khon Kaen Qigong (KKQ) program was associated with changes in clinical motor coordination, postural control, and simple reaction speed in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). A prospective, parallel-group, controlled pre–post
Design: was used. The manuscript-specific analysis included 62 older adults with MCI with 31 participants in the KKQ group and 31 in the usual-lifestyle control group. The KKQ group completed supervised training three times weekly, 60 min per session, for 12 weeks. The manuscript-specific primary outcomes were the study-recorded finger-to-nose, rapid alternating-movement, and gait/posture scores; mean ruler-drop reaction distance was the secondary outcome. Between-group differences in individual change scores were examined using two-sided Mann–Whitney U tests, with Holm adjustment across the three primary outcomes. Mean reaction distance was additionally analysed using a linear mixed-effects model, and the ordered clinical scores were examined using exploratory adjusted ordinal regression models. Complete baseline and week-12 records were available for all 62 participants included in the analysis. The KKQ group was older and had a higher baseline MoCA score than the control group. No statistically significant between-group differences were observed in changes in the three clinical coordination scores (Holm-adjusted P = 0.666, 0.666, and 0.503) or in mean ruler-drop reaction distance ( P = 1.000). Adjustment for age, body mass index, years of education, and baseline outcome values did not materially change the
Findings: , and additional adjustment for baseline MoCA did not materially alter the
Results: . Standardized between-group effect estimates were small (Hedges’ g between − 0.31 and + 0.14), and all 95% confidence intervals included the null value. The 12-week KKQ program was not associated with statistically detectable improvements in the specific clinical motor coordination, postural-control, or ruler-drop reaction outcomes assessed in this sample. These
findings should not be interpreted as evidence that KKQ is ineffective for other cognitive, physical, or functional outcomes. Because the study did not include neuroimaging or instrumented neurophysiological measures, no cerebellum-specific mechanism was tested. Trial registration Thai Clinical Trials Registry, TCTR20211228001.