Recruiting

Tai Chi

Sponsor:

Tufts Medical Center

Code:

NCT06384898

Conditions

Knee Osteoarthritis

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 50 - 70+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Remote Tai Chi

Study Details

Brief summary:

The goal of this pragmatic randomized trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of remote Tai Chi to treat knee pain in adults with knee osteoarthritis. The main questions the trial aims to answer are:

  • Compared to routine care, will patients with Knee OA receiving remote Tai Chi exhibit greater improvement in knee-related pain (WOMAC pain score, primary outcome), pain interference (PROMIS-Pain Interference, secondary outcome), and health-related quality of life at 3 months?
  • Does remote tai chi decreases healthcare utilization and analgesic use over the one-year study period?

Researchers will compare remote Tai Chi added to routine care to routine care alone to see if remote tai chi works to treat knee osteoarthritis pain. Participants will participate in remotely delivered web-based tai chi sessions, twice a week for 12 weeks, or will continue to receive routine care. Participants will be followed for 12 months after randomization.

Conditions

Knee Osteoarthritis

Study ID

NCT06384898

Start date

Apr 7, 2025

Status verified date

Sep, 2026

Completion date

Dec 10, 2027

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Mar 5, 2027

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 50 - 70+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 50 years or older
  • Treating clinician diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis
  • Have a score of 40 (visual analog version) or greater on at least 1 of the 5 questions in the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) pain subscale (range of 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater pain) at baseline.
  • Able to provide informed consent
  • If randomized to the Routine Care group, willing to abstain from Tai Chi programs until completion of the study
  • If randomized to the Tai Chi group, willing to comply with the Tai Chi program (twice-a-week remote sessions for 12 weeks)
  • Has access to a home computer or device that will allow telehealth (bidirectional audio and video) delivery of the intervention
  • Is an active patient at one of the 4 participating healthcare system

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Currently practicing Tai Chi
  • Serious medical conditions (e.g., dementia, significant neurological deficits or neurodegenerative disorder, active cancer treatment, psychosis, sensory deficits) limiting the participant's ability to participate in the Tai Chi safely, as determined by the principal investigators
  • Unable to walk without a cane or other assistive device
  • Any previous or scheduled knee replacement
  • Reports severe depression defined by a Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) score of 29 or more.
  • Reports suicidal ideations defined by a score on BDI-II item of 2 or 3 ('I would like to kill myself' or 'I would kill myself if I had the chance').
  • Not English speaking
  • Enrollment in any other clinical trial within the last 30 days

Study Design

Enrollment

480 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Tai Chi + Routine Care

The intervention will be delivered via a HIPAA-secure web-based video platform. All remote Tai Chi sessions will be 60 minutes, twice a week, for 3 months. All program components will use the Yang style Tai Chi, and every session will include warm up, review of principles, meditation with movement, breathing techniques and relaxation.

no intervention: Routine Care

Participants will be encouraged to continue their ongoing care for Knee OA by their providers. In addition, primary care providers and other participating clinicians in the health system will receive information from the study team on routine care or "2019 ACR Guideline-Based Care." At the end of the 12-month trial period, routine care participants will be offered access to recordings for the full 3-month Tai Chi program (24 sessions).

Interventions

Remote Tai Chi

Tai Chi mind-body exercise is a complex, multi-component nonpharmacological intervention integrating physical, psychological, emotional, and behavioral elements.

Primary outcome measure

  • WOMAC Pain Score [ Time Frame: 3 months from randomization ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Chenchen Wang, MD, MSc

617-636-3251Chenchen.Wang@tuftsmedicine.org

Sherwood Alexis, MHA, MBA

617-636-2612sherwood.alexis@tuftsmedicalcenter.org

Locations

Tufts Medical Center

Recruiting

Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02111

Contacts

Sherwood Alexis, MHA, MBA

617-636-2612sherwood.alexis@tuftsmedicalcenter.org

Principal Investigator:

Chenchen Wang, MD

More Information

Sponsor

Tufts Medical Center

Last update posted

Sep 4, 2026

Last verified

Sep, 2026

Keywords

  • Pragmatic Clinical Trial
  • Implementation Science
  • Mind-body Therapies
  • Tai Chi
  • Knee Osteoarthritis

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Tufts Medical Center on 2026-09-04.