Citation

Cholewa J, Cholewa J, Gorzkowska A, Malecki A, Stanula A. Biomed. Res. Int. 2017; 2017: e3631624.

Affiliation

Department of Methodology, Statistics and Computer Science, J. Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, Katowice, Poland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Hindawi Publishing)

DOI

10.1155/2017/3631624

PMID

28626755

PMCID

PMC5463172

Abstract

The factor determining quality of life in Parkinson's disease (PD) is the worsening of a patient's walking ability. The use of external stimuli can improve gait when performing complex motor patterns. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of rehabilitation on the effectiveness of control signals in people with PD. The study was performed on 42 people with idiopathic PD in the third stage of disease. The control group consisted of 19 patients who did not participate in rehabilitation activities. The experimental group was systematically participating in rehabilitation activities twice a week (60 minutes) for 9 months. Gait speed, mean step length, and step frequency were calculated on the basis of the obtained results. These parameters were compared in both groups by single factor variance analyses. The best results were obtained using rhythmic external auditory signals. The group with patients actively participating in rehabilitation showed statistically significant improvement in gait speed (12.35%), mean step length (18.00%), and frequency step (2.40%) compared to the control group. The presented research showed the positive effect of rehabilitation and was based on the performance of complex motion patterns, using external control signals for their effectiveness in new motion tasks.

Language: en