Effects of home exercises on motor performance in patients with Parkinson's disease

Objective: To investigate the effect of home exercises on the motor performance of patients with Parkinson's disease. Design: A prospective blinded study with allocation of patients into their groups by alternate weeks. Setting: A University Hospital neurology and physiotherapy department. Subjects: Recruited from a movement disorders outpatient clinic of Cerrahpasa School of Medicine diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, classified as Hoehn and Yahr Grades I, II and III. Interventions: Patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were recruited to the study. Each patient was evaluated at the end of first and second month after the baseline evaluation. Patients were divided into two groups. Those in the first and third week were put in the exercise group and second and fourth week in the control group. Patients in the exercise group (n = 15) were given a schedule of exercises to undertake at home; the others (n = 15) did not receive this instruction. Measures: Ten- and 20-m walking test, first pace length, pace number in 10 m, walking around a chair, Nine Hole Peg Board (NHPB) test. Results: Following the home exercise programme, patients in the exercise group showed improvement in walking 10 and 20 m, time elapsed to complete walking around a chair and length of the first pace length, and in the motor performance of both hands (p<0.001). Conclusions: A home-based rehabilitation programme for patients with Parkinson's disease helped to improve motor performance compared to patients who did not take advantage of a regular, professionally designed exercise programme.