Cervical spondylotic radiculopathy (CSR) prevalence is increasing, and it tends to be higher in younger people. The traditional Baduanjin exercise has obvious effects on improving the functions of muscles around the neck and shoulder, spine functions and mental state, but it is difficult to adhere to the exercise.

To examine the effect of modified first three postures of Baduanjin on improving clinical symptoms, anxiety, pain and quality of life anxiety and quality of life in CSR patients.

Seventy-two CSR patients were recruited from Rehabilitation Medicine Clinic, Fudan University Zhongshan Hospital from March to August 2021 and equally divided into a usual rehabilitation group and a modified Baduanjin group based on a computer-generated randomized algorithm. Both groups received usual rehabilitation interventions, including infrared therapy, traction, deep muscle stimulation (DMS) , and modified rotational cervical joint loosening, three times a week for a total of 4 weeks. The modified Baduanjin group additionally received modified first three postures of Baduanjin, 3 times a week, for 12 consecutive weeks. Cervical vertebra status was assessed by Yasuhisa Tanaka 20 Score Scale (YT20SS) , level of anxiety was assessed by the Zung Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) , the level of neck pain was assessed by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) , and the quality of life was assessed by the Chinese version of the 36-item Short Form Survey (SF-36-C) at baseline, and the end of four, eight and 12 weeks of interventions.

Except for 12 cases (four dropouts and two with abnormal data in the usual rehabilitation group, three dropouts and three with abnormal data in the modified Baduanjin group) , the remaining 60 cases were included for analysis. Compared with the usual rehabilitation group, modified Baduanjin group had higher YT20SS and SF-36-C, and lower SAS and VAS scores after four, eight, and 12 weeks of interventions (P<0.05) . In modified Baduanjin group, the results of the 4 measurements revealed that there were significantly successive increases in YT20SS and SF-36-C (P<0.05) , and significantly successive decreases in SAS and VAS scores (P<0.05) .

The modified first three postures of Baduanjian are time-saving and easy-to-perform, could contribute to the improvement of clinical symptoms, anxiety, neck pain and quality of life in CSR patients. Moreover, they are time-saving and easy-to-perform, so they are worthy of application and promotion for clinical rehabilitation and home-based usual rehabilitation for CSR.