The Effects of Tai Chi Exercise for Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: An Overview of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

OBJECTIVES: Tai chi (TC) is a potential complementary treatment for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This overview systematically summarizes and evaluates the existing evidence of TC in the treatment of T2DM. METHODS: Systematic reviews (SRs)/meta-analyses (MAs) on TC interventions for T2DM were comprehensively searched in seven databases. Methodological quality, risk of bias, reporting quality, and quality of evidence were assessed using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR-2), the Risk of Bias in Systematic (ROBIS) scale, the list of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA), and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system. RESULTS: Eight published SRs/MAs were included in our study. Based on the methodology and quality of evidence assessment, all SRs/MAs are considered to be of very low quality, and only 1 SR/MA has been assessed as low risk of bias, and none of the SR/MA has been fully reported on the checklist. A total of 65 outcome indicators extracted from the included SRs/MAs were evaluated, and only 1 item was assessed as high quality. CONCLUSIONS: TC may be an effective and safe complementary treatment for T2DM. However, this conclusion must be treated with caution because the quality of the evidence provided by the included SRs/MAs is generally low.