Is being physically active enough or do people with Parkinson’s disease need structured supervised exercise? Lessons learned from COVID-19

• Autor(a) principal: Domingos, Josefa
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Família, Carlos, Fernandes, Júlio Belo, Dean, John, Godinho, Catarina
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/40499
• topic: Social isolation; Parkinson’s disease; Exercise; Sedentary behaviour; Active behaviour

Social isolation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted people’s lifestyles and daily activities. In this work we compared pre- and post-pandemic clinical outcomes in people with Parkinson’s disease, to assess differences according to the type of behaviour and exercise habits adopted by participants. After two months of COVID-19 lockdown, we assessed: changes in exercise behaviour; motor and non-motor aspects of daily life experiences (MDS-UPDRS I & II); activities of daily living (The Schwab & England scale); quality of life (Parkinson Disease Questionnaire); sleep (Parkinson Disease Sleep Scale); falls; and Clinical Global Impression Change. Twenty-seven individuals aged between 57 and 92 years old participated; from these, ten individuals (37%) completely interrupted physical activities, while seventeen (63%) maintained some level of active lifestyle. Regardless of whether they remained active or not, all participants perceived a significant worsening of their clinical condition, reporting an increase in difficulties completing daily activities or chores (37%) and worsening of their health condition (51.8%). The quantifiable influence of exercise habits was borderline for the group who kept active. The active group seem to have a better self-perception of their health condition, although it was not enough to show a clear benefit. People with Parkinson’s disease should be informed that being physically active may not be enough and more structured exercise could be needed.