Effect of long-term exercise therapy on motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Author: Xuening Li1, Zixuan Gao, Huasen Yu, Yan Gu, Guang Yang
Affiliation: <sup>1</sup> From the Brain and Cognition Research Center (CerCo), CNRS, Université de Toulouse 3, Toulouse, France (Xuening Li); Graduate Office, Jilin Sport University, Jilin, China (Zixuan Gao); Department of Physical Education and Health, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China (Huasen Yu); Department of Physical Education, Changchun Polytechnic, Jilin, China (Yan Gu); Department of Physical Education, Northeast Normal University, Jilin, China (Guang Yang).
Conference/Journal: Am J Phys Med Rehabil
Date published: 2022 Jun 13
Other: Special Notes: doi: 10.1097/PHM.0000000000002052. , Word Count: 190


Objective:
To assess the effectiveness of long-term exercise therapy (≥12 weeks) for people with Parkinson's Disease (PD), and to derive specific suggestions on how the motor symptom improvements can be optimized by exercise type and exercise dose.

Design:
The PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register, Embase, Scopus and CNKI databases were searched up to January 2021 for randomized controlled trial focusing on the effects of long-term exercise for PD. Two researchers independently evaluated the quality of papers using the PEDro scale. 26 studies with a total of 1,243 participants were included.

Results:
Tai Chi, resistance training and dance provide significant improvements in physical function and functional mobility. Furthermore, Tai Chi and dance result in balance benefits. However, walking capacity outcomes did not improve after Tai Chi and resistance training, but did improve after dance training. With an increase in the intervention duration or length of each session, the effect sizes of exercise on these outcomes increased; higher benefits of exercise on these outcomes were observed at a frequency of 2 times/week.

Conclusions:
Long-term exercise therapy is an effective treatment for improving motor symptoms, with dance being an ideal exercise choice.


PMID: 35695530 DOI: 10.1097/PHM.0000000000002052