Objective: to evaluate the repercussion of an aquatic physical exercise program on the body balance of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in stages 2, 5 and 3 in the Hoehn and Yahr scale.

Background: Parkinson’s Disease occurs loss motor functions such as muscle rigidity, bradykinesia, resting tremor and postural instability/ balance¹. Aquatic Physical Exercises (APE) have been used for the training².

Methods: 7 men and 4 women were evaluated (65 years old) with PD. Four evaluations: initial assessment (IA), revaluation 1 (RA1), 2 (RA2) and 3 (RA3). The period between IA and RA1 was nominated control and RA1 and RA2 experimental. The RA3 (detraining), six weeks after the end of aquatic program. Instruments: timed up-and-go (TUG), average gait speed test (AGV), Force Platform (FP). Were 12 sessions (40, 55 until 60 min) with APE, temperature 30 to 32°C, twice a week. To compare the average of the FP (Friedman), for the TUG and AGV (ANOVA for repeated measures), the correlation between FP, TUG and the AGV (multivariate analysis) and the comparison between the means of IA and RA2 between TUG, AGV and the cardinal signs of PD (delta calculation).

Results: There was no significant difference for FP. The anova was significant for TUG (F(2,20)=8.04, p=0.003) and for the AGV (F(2,20)=8.325, p= 0.002). The correlation between the tests showed that as the TUG reduces the AGV increases and these results were correlated with the increase in FP values. The rigidity sign was significant in its relation with the IA and RA2 with TUG presenting p=0.04 and there was a tendency to significance for bradykinesia with TUG with p=0.067. There was no significant difference for the other cardinal signs and for comparison with the AGV. Intervention with the AEP was designed to the participants, showing improvement over the body balance especially for those with rigidity (n=9, 81.8% of the sample.

Conclusions: The study showed that even with increasing age and the presence of PD, it is possible to obtain positive results regarding postural control through the APE (3). This APE was effective for postural control participants with PD, but participants with muscle stiffness had higher benefits for dynamic body balance (3).

References:

• 1.SILVA et al., 2013: SILVA, D. M.; NUNES, M. C. O.; OLIVEIRA, P. J. A.; CORIOLANO, M. G. W. S.; BERENGUER, F. A.; LINS, O. G.; XIMENES, D. K. G. Efeitos da fisioterapia aquática na qualidade de vida de sujeitos com doença de Parkinson. Fisioter. Pesq. v.20, n.1, p.17-23, 2013.2.

• 2.ISRAEL, V. L.; PARDO, M. B.L. Hydrotherapy: Application of an Aquatic Functional Assessment Scale (AFAS) in Aquatic Motor Skills Learning. American International Journal of Contemporary Research, v.4, n.2, February, 2014.
• 3.DASHTIPOUR, K. et al. Effect of Exercise on Motor and Nonmotor Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. Parkinson’s Disease, v.1, 5 pages, 2015.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/aquatic-physical-exercises-balance-in-people-with-parkinsons-disease/