Evaluation of a Selected Balance Training on Physiological, Motor and Balance Performance in Patients with Parkinson's disease

  Background and purpose: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder of the central nervous system which leads to slowness of movement, tremor, postural instability, reduced balance, and autonomic nervous system disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of selected balance training on physiological, motor and balance performance in patients with PD. Materials and methods: This pre-post design interventional study was performed in 30 female patients at PD stages 1-3 based on Hoehn and Yahr scale who were willing to participate in our study. They were selected via purposive sampling in Zahedan Ali Ibn Abitaleb Hospital and divided into two groups (n= 15). The intervention group in addition to medications had balance training 3 sessions/week ×60 min for 8 weeks while patients in the control group were only followed up. Evaluation was performed at the beginning and end of the study using Berg Balance Scale (BBS), leg muscle strength, and the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test. In order to evaluate the normality of data distribution, homogeneity of variance between the two groups, and differences between means, we applied Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Leven test, and dependent t-test, respectively using SPSS V22. Results: After the intervention, mean BBS score showed significant increase (48.69±10.28, P<0.05) and we observed significant improvement in the mean score for leg muscle strength (0.456±0.092, P<0.05). In this study, mean TUG was found to significantly decrease after the intervention (18.14±3.63, P<0.05). Conclusion: It seems that balanced exercises lead to increased balance, leg muscle strength, and reduced TUG in patients with Parkinson's disease. (Clinical Trials Registry Number: IRCT20171030037099N1)