PainRelief.com: What are the main findings?
Response: A total of 178 adults, including 42% from rural and regional Australia, took part in the trial. Compared with the control group, those in the Tai Chi group had greater improvements in pain and physical function, with twice as many Tai Chi participants reporting an overall improvement in their knee condition. Tai Chi participants also reported improvements in quality of life, physical and mental wellbeing, and balance confidence, with no serious adverse events reported.
Participants were highly satisfied with the program and said they would highly recommend it to others. Most described it as relaxing, engaging and easy to follow, and they appreciated the positive experience of learning something new. Many valued the flexibility of being able to pause, rewind and repeat the session anytime, anywhere – a feature that helped them learn at their own pace and fit exercise into their daily lives
PainRelief.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: This home-based online Tai Chi program is a free, safe and effective way to improve knee pain and function for people with chronic knee pain. It allows them to access guideline-recommended osteoarthritis management from the comfort of their own home at their own pace. Clinicians can use this resource to support their delivery of patient care. For readers without health conditions, they can also use the Tai Chi videos in this program to increase their daily physical activity and improve overall well-being.
“My Joint Tai Chi” is now freely available to public at http://myjoint-taichi.org.
PainRelief.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: First, similar to our approach during the development of the Tai Chi program, future online exercise intervention should be co-designed with experts end-users to ensure they are patient-centered and user-informed.
Second, given “My Joint Tai Chi” is a fully self-managed and unsupervised program, future research could explore how best to implement it within difference healthcare delivery models – such as integrating it into primary health care through a stepped-care approach.
Third, mechanistic studies using mediation analysis can be conducted to help us better understand how and why online Tai Chi leads to improvements in pain and function.
Any disclosures? The study was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator Grant (#1174431).
Citation:
Zhu SJ, Hinman RS, Nelligan RK, et al. Online Unsupervised Tai Chi Intervention for Knee Pain and Function in People With Knee Osteoarthritis: The RETREAT Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med. Published online October 27, 2025. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.5723
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Last Updated on October 28, 2025 by PainRelief.com