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Abstract

Objective: Prior reviews emphasize overall health outcomes of Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) but rarely resolve the biomechanical intermediates (such as Center of Mass (CoM)–Center of Pressure (CoP) control, joint loading) that link practice to clinical function—knowledge that matters for balance, fall risk, and osteoarthritic knee load management. This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to test the null hypothesis that TCC produces no improvement versus comparators in (i) biomechanical stability indices (mediolateral/anterior–posterior CoM–CoP separation; COP Root Mean Square RMS) and (ii) related clinical functions (such as Time up and go (TUG), Berg balance scale (BBS), Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC); alternative hypothesis: TCC improves these outcomes. Methods: Eligible designs were randomized trials, non-randomized interventions (pre–post/controlled before–after), analytical cross-sectional comparisons (including repeated-measures and expert–novice contrasts), and finite-element analyses only when driven by in-study human kinematics/kinetics; timeframe 2021–2025; humans only. Results: Outcomes were continuous; therefore, pooled effects are reported as SMD (95% CI, p). Peak mediolateral CoM–CoP separation: SMD = 0.16 (-1.12 to 1.45), p = 0.80. Peak anteroposterior CoM–CoP separation: SMD = 0.33 (-0.65 to 1.31), p = 0.505. Mediolateral COP RMS in single-leg tasks: SMD =-1.60 (-4.16 to 0.96), p = 0.22. Conclusion: Across the included studies, Tai Chi Chuan demonstrated favourable trends in balance control and joint loading under structured programs, with concurrent reductions in select clinical endpoints.

Article Type

Systematic Review

First Page

1445

Last Page

1459

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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