Gait training with progressive external auditory cueing in persons with Parkinson's disease.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the progressively increasing external auditory cues during mobility training with persons with Parkinson's disease (PD). DESIGN Experimental. SETTING General community. PARTICIPANTS Convenience sample of persons with PD (N=12) who walked independently. INTERVENTIONS Gait training to external auditory cues was based on a participant's comfortable walking pace. Training external auditory cues rates were increased if patients were able to maintain or increase stride length with increasing external auditory cues rate. Movement synchronization was not monitored during training. Participants trained for 30min/session, 3 sessions/wk, for 8 weeks. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Walking velocity, stride length, and cadence. RESULTS Participants trained at a mean maximal rate of 157bpm. They showed a significant (P<.01) increase in walking velocity, stride length, and cadence after 8 weeks of training. CONCLUSIONS Walking velocity, stride length, and cadence can significantly improve when community-dwelling persons with PD participate in progressive mobility training.