Effects of Baduanjin exercise in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients after chemoradiotherapy: a randomized controlled trial

Objective To evaluate the effects of traditional Chinese Baduanjin Qigong exercises on the physical and psychological recovery of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma after chemoradiotherapy. Methods Eighty-eight nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients who had completed chemoradiotherapy were randomly divided into the Baduanjin intervention group (n = 44) and the control group (n = 44). Patients in the intervention group practised Baduanjin exercise for 12 weeks, with the frequency of 40 min a day and 5 days a week after discharge from the hospital. Participants in the control group received usual care. Outcome indicators included quality of life (QOL), complications, cancer-related fatigue (CRF), sleep quality, anxiety, and depression. The intention-to-treat and per-protocol populations were compared using univariate analysis of variance. Partial eta squared was used as a measure of the effect size. Results A total of 75 patients completed the study. In the intention-to-treat analysis, after 12 weeks of exercise intervention, there were significant increases in the global FACT-H & N (95% CI = 2.09 to 11.47, eta(2)(p) = 0.088), social/family well-being (95% CI = 0.13 to 2.26, eta(2)(p) = 0.055), emotional well-being (95% CI = 0.34 to 2.44, eta(2)(p) = 0.074), and head and neck cancer subscale scores (95% CI = 0.17 to 3.86, eta(2)(p) = 0.052) in the Baduanjin group compared with the control group at the 12th week. In the per-protocol analysis, there were significant increases in the global FACT-H & N (95% CI = 4.11 to 11.75, eta(2)(p) = 0.190), physical well-being (95% CI: 0.50 to 3.04, eta(2)(p) = 0.096), social/family well-being (95% CI: 0.32 to 2.15, eta(2)(p) = 0.090), emotional well-being (95% CI: 0.60 to 2.53, eta(2)(p) = 0.125), functional well-being (95% CI: 0.25 to 2.49, eta(2)(p) = 0.075), and head and neck cancer subscale (95% CI: 1.08 to 4.08, eta(2)(p) = 0.139) scores in the Baduanjin group compared with the control group at the 12th week. Conclusion The findings in this study indicate that Baduanjin exercise is an effective and appropriate intervention for improving quality of life and is worthy of recommendation and implementation by oncology nurses in the rehabilitation process of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.