Authors (including presenting author) :
So CT, Lui KY, Cheung SF, Leung KH
Affiliation :
Occupational Therapy Department, Princess Margaret Hospital
Introduction :
With the increasing demand of patient transfer activities in clinical areas, there were annually on and off Injury On Duty (IOD) incidents happened to our staff in the department. Despite manual handling skills and measures had been vigorously re-visited, a drastic increase in the number of IOD incidents was reported in earlier last year, with a total of three incidents related to sprain injury within a 4-month period. This deserved an instant and additional preventive measures to be implemented in the department. Knowing that Health Qigong has increasing evidence on the beneficial effect on people's well-beings, its practice was introduced for workers’ health. A study was also designed to investigate the effectiveness of this Health Qigong practice in staff well-beings.
Objectives :
- to investigate the effectiveness of Health Qigong on physical and psychological health among staff in the department
- to collect qualitative feedbacks on personal health after a period of Health Qigong practice
- to measure the effectiveness of Health Qigong practice in reducing IOD incidents
Methodology :
All staff in the Occupational Therapy Department in the Rehabilitation/ Convalescent unit were invited. From April 2019 to July 2019, participants participated in a 13-minute practice session of Health Qigong - Ba Duan Jin and Yi Jin Jing alternatively on weekdays before work. An electronic questionnaire was designed to evaluate quantitative data including level of muscle tightness, muscle soreness, relaxation, awareness of posture, emotion, sleep quality and immunity before participating in Health Qigong practice, and at 1-month, 3-month and 6-month interval . Paired t-test and ANOVA were used for data analysis. Qualitative data including self-perceived short-term and long-term effects of Health Qigong practice were also collected during the same intervals.
Result & Outcome :
19 participants were recruited, with 3 participants dropped out due to job-post rotations. Compliance rate to regular Health Qigong practice was 70-98% among 16 participants recruited. All assessed aspects showed no significant improvement at the first month. At 3-month, awareness of posture and sleep quality were significantly improved (p< 0.05). Though no statistical significant improvement was noted in muscle soreness (p=0.390) and tightness (p=0.81), most participants subjectively reported muscles were more relaxed immediately after practice. After 3-month Health Qigong practice, some participants reported improved flexibility and mood. Mean score for subjective improvement in flexibility was 6.3/10. For participants with pain issues, they reported practice was effective to relieve pain. Preliminary short term result indicated that significant improvement was shown in awareness of posture and sleep quality. Though not statistically significant, participants subjectively found that regular Health Qigong practice reduces muscle tightness, improve mood, flexibility and relieving pain in their testimonials. Evaluations at the 6-month interval are to be collected soon and further analysis at this interval is pending. Overall, there was no more IOD incident reported for more than 9 months since Health Qigong practice was started. The long-term effect of Health Qigong practice in reducing risk of IOD incidents seems promising. Senior management should consider a minimal investment on promoting staff health through Health Qigong practice as a preventive measure to reduce future possible loss of manpower at work due to IOD in long run.
