Qualitative Analysis of a Controlled Trial of <i>Qigong</i> for Fibromyalgia: Advancing Understanding of an Emerging Health Practice
Bibliographic record
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) and an extension trial of qigong (Chaoyi Fanhuan qigong [CFQ]) in patients with fibromyalgia were recently completed. In the present study, a qualitative analysis of comments from the RCT was undertaken using motivation and amount of practice to determine whether initial experiences provided information relevant to outcomes. INTERVENTION: Participants in the RCT received instruction in qigong (level 1 CFQ), practiced 45 min/day for 8 weeks and continued practice to 6 months; open-ended qualitative comments on experiences were invited at 8 weeks and 4 and 6 months. Extension trial participants received further instruction (level 2 CFQ) and practiced regularly for 8 weeks-6 months. Comments from the original RCT were considered as narratives for the extension trial subgroup (n=20) and thematically, according to amount of practice, for all participants who completed the RCT (n=73). RESULTS: Narrative comments from the RCT for those who completed the extension trial (n=13) and those who withdrew from that trial (n=7) were considered separately. Participants reporting benefits within the first 8 weeks were more likely to maintain practice and report continued benefits at 4-6 months than those who withdrew from the trial. Thematic comments for all who completed the RCT (n=73) were considered in relation to amount of practice (per protocol, intermediate, minimal). Participants who practiced per protocol during the initial 8 weeks (≥5 hours/wk) were more likely to maintain practice over 4-6 months and to report beneficial health effects from qigong. CONCLUSIONS: This retrospective qualitative analysis of information collected in an RCT of qigong for fibromyalgia indicates that favorable initial experiences with the practice over 8 weeks predispose to continued practice and more health effects. Future individual trials and meta-analyses of qigong will need to attend to the amount, and potentially quality, of practice undertaken in considering trial outcomes.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.107 | 0.184 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.005 | 0.006 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.006 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".