Long-term effects of highly challenging balance training in Parkinson’s disease—a randomized controlled trial:

Objectives:To determine long-term effects of a highly challenging training program in people with Parkinson’s disease, as well as describe how initially observed improvements of the program deteriorated over time.Design:Long-term follow-up of previously reported outcomes at 10 weeks of a randomized controlled trial.Setting:University hospital setting.Participants:One-hundred elderly with mild-to-moderate (Hoehn and Yahr 2–3) Parkinson’s disease.Interventions:Participants in the training group (n = 51) received 10 weeks (three times/week) of balance and gait exercises, incorporating dual-tasks, while the control group (n = 49) received care as usual.Main Outcome Measures:Balance control (Mini-Balance Evaluation System Test (Mini-BESTest)) and gait velocity. Mixed-design analyses of variance were used to determine potential training effects at 6- and 12-month follow-up, and piecewise regression models predicted the rate of deterioration.Results:Seventy-six participants were included at final follow-up. No s...