Acute Physiological and Psychological Effects of Qigong Exercise in Older Practitioners

Table 3

Descriptive statistics of STAI, SF-36, and HRV before and after qigong exercise.

Variables	Before		After		p value
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
STAI-S	32.91	8.40	28.44	7.26	<0.001
STAI-T	36.60	9.21	33.80	9.52	0.001
SF-36
Total score	116.58	15.50	117.18	17.11	0.460
Physical score	58.93	8.16	58.49	8.91	0.430
Mental score	54.76	8.48	55.64	0.15	0.098
HRV
RR interval (ms)	848.22	161.75	809.64	158.02	0.035
HF	847.51	2754.66	1101.3	3256.69	0.39
LF	572.36	1606.11	560.05	1510.56	0.84
HF Ln	4.6	1.78	4.47	1.99	0.28
LF Ln	4.84	1.57	4.77	1.54	0.43

STAI: state-trait anxiety inventory; SF-36: short form 36; HRV: heart rate variability; HF: high frequency; LF: lower frequency; HF Ln: normalized high frequency; LF Ln: normalized lower frequency. Significant differences between before and after a qigong exercise.