Category: Parkinson’s Disease: Clinical Trials
Objective: To describe baseline characteristics of the cohort of participants recruited to a world-first randomised controlled single blind trial of ballet-based dance intervention for holistic (motor and non-motor) management of Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Background: Programmed exercise patterns such as dance have a beneficial effect on the severity of motor symptoms of PD, but, although described, effects on key non-motor symptoms have not been studied formally [1].
Method: PD-Ballet is an on-going randomised, placebo-controlled, single-blind study evaluating feasibility, effectiveness, and professional (English National Ballet) implementation of a 12-week ballet programme to address its effects on non-motor symptoms of PD, in a cohort of early (Hoehn Yahr stages I and II) and advanced (Hoehn and Yahr stages III – V) people with Parkinson’s (PwP), aged between 36 and 82 years.
Results: Baseline and demographic characteristics of the recruited cohort are presented: out of 196 PwP invited, 140 were interested, and data on 77 are presented after attrition (Table 1). Among enrolled participants, 40% were male, 18.7% were non-white, and the disease duration ranged from 6 months to 19 years. Hoehn and Yahr staging varied from I to V. Cognitive status, as defined by the MoCA score, varied from impaired to intact (14/30 to 30/30). Non-motor symptom scores ranged from 9 points to 377 points on the MDS-NMS, demonstrating a wide range of non-motor burden.
Conclusion: Analysis of baseline demographics of the PD-Ballet cohort shows a wide interest in this novel dance-based therapy trial, which appears cross-culturally as demonstrated by the ethnic heterogeneity of the cohort. In addition, the enrolled participants vary across all motor stages and a wide non-motor spectrum.
References: 1. Ernst M, Folkerts AK, Gollan R, Lieker E, Caro-Valenzuela J, Adams A, Cryns N, Monsef I, Dresen A, Roheger M, Eggers C, Skoetz N, Kalbe E. Physical exercise for people with Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2023 Jan 5;1(1):CD013856. Doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD013856.pub2. PMID: 36602886; PMCID: PMC9815433
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
A. Podlewska, L. Batzu, J. Staunton, P. Tall, V. Leta, M. Uribe Mz-Recaman, F. Derbyshire-Fox, A. Hartley, T. Soukup, R. Davis, N. Sevdalis, A. Healey, I. Bakolis, C. Pariante, A. Woods, K. Ray Chaudhuri. The PD-Ballet study: a randomised controlled, single-blinded trial of dance therapy for Parkinson’s, baseline characteristics of the study cohort [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2023; 38 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-pd-ballet-study-a-randomised-controlled-single-blinded-trial-of-dance-therapy-for-parkinsons-baseline-characteristics-of-the-study-cohort/. Accessed June 14, 2025.« Back to 2023 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-pd-ballet-study-a-randomised-controlled-single-blinded-trial-of-dance-therapy-for-parkinsons-baseline-characteristics-of-the-study-cohort/