Feasibility and effects of cognitive-motor exergames on fall risk factors in typical and atypical Parkinson's inpatients: a randomized controlled pilot study

Salome Jäggi; Annina Wachter; Manuela Adcock; Eling D de Bruin; Jens Carsten Möller; Detlef Marks; Raoul Schweinfurther; Eleftheria Giannouli

doi:10.1186/s40001-022-00963-x

Feasibility and effects of cognitive-motor exergames on fall risk factors in typical and atypical Parkinson's inpatients: a randomized controlled pilot study

Eur J Med Res. 2023 Jan 16;28(1):30. doi: 10.1186/s40001-022-00963-x.

Authors

Salome Jäggi¹, Annina Wachter¹, Manuela Adcock¹, Eling D de Bruin^{1

2

3}, Jens Carsten Möller^{4

5}, Detlef Marks⁴, Raoul Schweinfurther⁴, Eleftheria Giannouli^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Sciences & Technology, Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
² Division of Physiotherapy, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
³ Department of Health, OST - Eastern Swiss University of Applied Sciences, St.Gallen, Switzerland.
⁴ Parkinson Center, Center for Neurological Rehabilitation, Zihlschlacht, Switzerland.
⁵ Department of Neurology, Philipps University, Marburg, Germany.
⁶ Department of Health Sciences & Technology, Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. eleftheria.giannouli@hest.ethz.ch.
⁷ Department of Sport, Exercise and Health, Division of Sports and Exercise Medicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. eleftheria.giannouli@hest.ethz.ch.

Abstract

Background: People with Parkinson`s disease (PD) often suffer from both motor and cognitive impairments. Simultaneous motor and cognitive training stimulates neurobiological processes which are important especially for people with PD. The aim of this study is to test the feasibility and effects of simultaneous cognitive-motor training in form of exergames in the setting of inpatient rehabilitation of persons with PD.

Methods: Forty participants (72.4 ± 9.54 years; Hoehn and Yahr stage 1-4) were randomly assigned to either the intervention group, which trained five times a week in addition to the conventional rehabilitation program, or the control group, which underwent the standard rehabilitation treatment only. Primary outcome was feasibility (measured by adherence rate, attrition rate, occurrence of adverse events, system usability scale (SUS), and NASA TLX score). In addition, various cognitive (Go/No-Go test, reaction time test (RTT), color word interference test (D-KEFS) and Trail Making Test A and B (TMT)) and motor (preferred gait speed, maximum gait speed, dual-task gait speed, Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), Timed Up and Go (TUG) and 5 times Sit-to-Stand (5xStS)) tests were conducted before and after the intervention phase in order to determine training effects RESULTS: Adherence rate was 97%, there were just two dropouts due to reasons unrelated to the study and there were no adverse events. The mean NASA TLX value was 56.2 and the mean value of the SUS was 76.7. Significant time-group interaction effects were observed for the 5xStS, the SPPB, the RTT, the Go/No-Go test and the D-KEFS 2.

Discussion: Exergaming, as applied in this study, showed to be feasible, safe and likely effective for the improvement of cognitive and motor functions of PD inpatients. Because of this future randomized controlled trials with a main focus on testing the efficacy of this new intervention are warranted.

Trial registration: The study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (ID: NCT04872153).

Keywords: Exercise; Exergaming; Motor-cognitive training; Neurological patients; Parkinson’s disease.

MeSH terms

Cognition
Exergaming*
Feasibility Studies
Humans
Inpatients
Parkinson Disease* / complications
Parkinson Disease* / psychology
Parkinson Disease* / therapy
Pilot Projects
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT04872153