Long-term multimodal exercise program enhances mobility of patients with Parkinson's disease

• Autor(a) principal: Pereira, Marcelo Pinto [UNESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Ferreira, Maria Dilailça Trigueiro de Oliveira [UNESP], Caetano, Maria Joana Duarte [UNESP], Vitório, Rodrigo [UNESP], Lirani-Silva, Ellen [UNESP], Barbieri, Fabio Augusto [UNESP], Stella, Florindo [UNESP], Gobbi, Lilian Teresa Bucken [UNESP]
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.5402/2012/491718; http://hdl.handle.net/11449/134995

Objective. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a long-period multimodal exercise program on balance, mobility and clinical status of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Methods. Thirty-three PD patients were assigned into two groups: a training group (TG—n = 22; aged 67.23 ± 8.39 years) and a control group (CG—n = 9; aged 71.56 ± 8.50 years). The TG patients were enrolled in a 6-month multimodal exercise program. This program was designed to improve physical capacity components and to reduce PD impairments. Balance and mobility were assessed immediately before and after the training protocol using the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), the “Timed up and go” (TUG), and the Posture Locomotion Test (PLM). Also, clinical variables were assessed (disease stage and impairments). Results. The TG showed an improvement in the TUG (P = 0.006) while CG were not influenced by the 6-months period. Both groups showed no differences for BBS and PLM and for their disease impairments—assessed through the Unified Parkinson’s disease Scale. Conclusions. Long-term multimodal exercise programs are able to improve mobility of patients with Parkinson’s disease and therefore should be used on clinical day life.