Perceptions of balance and falls following a supervised training intervention – a qualitative study of people with Parkinson’s disease
Creators: name: Breiffni Leavy
name: Berntsson, Johan
name: Franzén, Erika
name: Roaldson, Kirsti Skavborg
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Science Policy
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: 111714 Mental Health
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: FOS: Health sciences

description: <b>Purpose:</b> To explore perceptions of balance and falls among people with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease 3 − 12 months following participation in supervised balance training. <b>Materials and methods:</b> This qualitative study used in-depth individual interviews for data collection among 13 people with Parkinson’s disease. Interviews were systematically analyzed using qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach. <b>Results:</b> Three main themes arose: <i>Falls – avoided and intended</i> highlights the wide spectrum of fall perceptions, ranging from worse-case scenario to undramatized events; <i>Balance identity</i> incorporates how gradual deterioration in balance served as a reminder of disease progression and how identifying themselves as “aware not afraid” helped certain participants to maintain balance confidence despite everyday activity restriction; <i>Training as treatment</i> recounts how participants used exercise as disease self-management with the aim to maintain independence in daily life. Interpretation of the underlying patterns of these main themes resulted in the overarching theme <i>Training as treatment when battling problems with balance and falls</i>. <b>Conclusions:</b> Whereas certain participants expressed a fear of falling which they managed by activity restriction, others described being confident in their balance despite avoidance of balance-challenging activities. Training was used as treatment to self-manage disease-related balance impairments in order to maintain independence in daily life.Implication for RehabilitationPeople with Parkinson’s disease require early advice about the positive effects of physical activity as well as strategies for self-management in order to ease the psychological and physical burden of progressive balance impairment.Fear of falling should be investigated alongside activity avoidance in this group in order to provide a more accurate insight into the scope of psychological concerns regarding balance and falls in everyday life.Certain people with Parkinson’s disease define their balance according to activities they continue to participate in, while others who express fear-related activity avoidance require help to adapt balance-challenging activities in order to maintain balance confidence and avoid physical inactivity. People with Parkinson’s disease require early advice about the positive effects of physical activity as well as strategies for self-management in order to ease the psychological and physical burden of progressive balance impairment. Fear of falling should be investigated alongside activity avoidance in this group in order to provide a more accurate insight into the scope of psychological concerns regarding balance and falls in everyday life. Certain people with Parkinson’s disease define their balance according to activities they continue to participate in, while others who express fear-related activity avoidance require help to adapt balance-challenging activities in order to maintain balance confidence and avoid physical inactivity.