Functional Improvement in Patients With Parkinson's Disease After Training in Real or Virtual Environment
Condition: Parkinson´s Disease
MeSH terms: Parkinson Disease
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The objective of this work was to compare the effects of two balance training programs, one
      Nintendo Wii Fit-based and the other traditionally-based without the use of a gaming system,
      on the balance, functionality and cognition of patients with Parkinson´s disease. It was a
      prospective, single blinded, randomized clinical trial performed at Brazil Parkinson
      Association and Center of Research of the courses of Speech Therapy, Physical Therapy and
      Occupational Therapy of São Paulo University. 32 patients with Parkinson´s disease on stages
      1 and 2,5 of Hoehn e Yahr participated of this work. Patients were randomized in control and
      experimental group, 16 each one.

      The study was finished at december 2011.
    

Detailed description: 
      The objective of this work was to compare the effects of two balance training programs, one
      Nintendo Wii Fit-based and the other traditionally-based without the use of a gaming system,
      on the balance, functionality and cognition of patients with Parkinson´s disease. It was a
      prospective, single blinded, randomized clinical trial performed at Brazil Parkinson
      Association and Center of Research of the courses of Speech Therapy, Physical Therapy and
      Occupational Therapy of São Paulo University. 32 patients with Parkinson´s disease on stages
      1 and 2,5 of Hoehn e Yahr participated of this work. Patients were randomized in control and
      experimental group, 16 each one. Both groups performed 14 training sessions, twice a week,
      for seven weeks. Each session was composed of a 30 minute-global-exercise series including
      stretching, muscle strengthen and axial mobility exercises. After this, both groups performed
      more 30 minutes of balance training: the control group performed balance exercises without
      external cues, visual or auditory feedbacks or cognitive stimulations; the experimental group
      performed the balance training with 10 Wii Fit games which stimulated motor and cognitive
      functions. The main outcome measures were: (1) Unified Parkinson´s Disease Rating Scale
      (UPDRS); (2) Berg Balance Scale (BBS); (3) Unipedal Stance Test (UST) and (4) Montreal
      Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). The statistical analysis was done by repeated measures ANOVA in
      order to assess the possible differences among the analyzed variables. Both groups showed
      improvement in the section II of UPDRS, BBS, UST and MoCA. Patients with Parkinson´s disease
      showed balance and cognitive improvement with positive repercussion on daily living
      activities after 14 sessions of balance training without additional advantages to the virtual
      training.
    

Intervention name(s): Balance Training with Nintendo Wii Fit; Physical Therapy
Intervention type(s): Device; Other
Intervention description(s): The participants of the study trained 10 balance games during 14 sessions.; Patients of the control group was trained with balance exercises.
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Parkinson´s disease; Postural Balance; virtual reality