Home-based prescribed exercise improves balance-related activities and gait speed in people with Parkinson 's disease , and these improvements are similar to improvements with equivalent centre-based exercise .
QUESTIONS In people with Parkinson 's disease , does home-based prescribed exercise improve balance-related activities and quality of life compared with no intervention ?
Are the effects of home-based exercise similar to those of equivalent centre-based exercise ?
Reliability of measurements obtained with the Timed "Up & Go" test in people with Parkinson disease.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The Timed " Up & Go " Test ( TUG ) is used to measure the ability of patients to perform sequential locomotor tasks that incorporate walking and turning . This study investigated the retest reliability , interrater reliability , and sensitivity of scores obtained with the TUG in detecting changes in mobility in subjects with idiopathic Parkinson disease ( PD ) . SUBJECTS The performance of 12 people with PD was compared with that of 12 age-matched comparison subjects without PD . METHODS The subjects with PD completed 5 trials of the TUG after withdrawal of levodopa for 12 hours ( " off " phase of the medication cycle ) as well as an additional 5 trials 1 hour after levodopa was administered ( " on " phase of the medication cycle ) . They were scored on the Modified Webster Scale at both sessions . The comparison subjects also performed 5 TUG trials . All trials were videotaped and timed by 2 experienced raters . The videotape was later rated by 3 experienced clinicians and 3 inexperienced clinicians . RESULTS For the subjects with PD , within-session performance was highly consistent , with correlations ( r ) ranging from.80 to.98 for the " off " phase and from.73 to.99 for the " on " phase . The performance of the comparison subjects across the 5 trials was also highly consistent ( r=.90-.97 ) . Comparisons showed differences between trials 1 and 2 on the TUG for both groups . Removal of data for trial 1 ( the practice trial ) further enhanced retest reliability . There was close agreement in TUG scores among raters despite different levels of experience ( intraclass correlation coefficient [3,1]=.87-.99 ) . Mean TUG scores were different between the " on " and " off " phases of the levodopa cycle and between subjects with PD and comparison subjects during the " on " phase . CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION Retest reliability and interrater reliability of the TUG measurements were high , and the measurements reflected changes in performance according to levodopa use . The TUG can also be used to detect differences in performance between people with PD and elderly people without PD
Home-based prescribed exercise improves balance-related activities and gait speed in people with Parkinson 's disease , and these improvements are similar to improvements with equivalent centre-based exercise .
QUESTIONS In people with Parkinson 's disease , does home-based prescribed exercise improve balance-related activities and quality of life compared with no intervention ?
Are the effects of home-based exercise similar to those of equivalent centre-based exercise ?