An Evidence Map of Tai Chi and Qigong, 2014-2024: A Systematic Review

The objective of this evidence map of systematic reviews was to identify and map systematic reviews published from 2014 to 2024 that evaluated Tai Chi or qigong for adult health conditions, summarize review conclusions, and abstract the reported certainty, quality, or strength of evidence.

We searched Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, CINAHL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Ovid MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Scopus from January 2014 to March 2024. Eligible publications were systematic reviews of Tai Chi or qigong for adult health conditions that used a formal approach to assess certainty, quality, or strength of evidence and reported those ratings for the effect of Tai Chi or qigong. Four reviewers screened titles and abstracts in duplicate. Data on review characteristics, conclusions, and reported certainty assessments were extracted by one reviewer and verified by a second reviewer.

We included 26 systematic reviews. Two reviews reported high-certainty evidence for improved postmenopausal bone mineral density and reduced blood pressure in hypertension. Sixteen reviews reported at least one moderate-certainty conclusion. Eighteen of the 26 reviews reported adverse events data; among those 18 reviews, no serious adverse events were reported.

Among the included reviews, high-certainty evidence of benefit was reported for hypertension and postmenopausal bone mineral density. Several additional conditions had moderate-certainty conclusions, but much of the literature remained low or very low certainty. Safety interpretation was limited by inconsistent reporting of harms in the included reviews.