Standing balance in individuals with Parkinson's disease during single and dual-task conditions

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the differences in standing balance between individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) and subjects without PD (control group), under single and dual-task conditions. A cross-sectional study was designed using a non-probabilistic sample of 110 individuals (50 participants with PD and 60 controls) aged 50 years old and over. The individuals with PD were in the early or middle stages of the disease (characterized by Hoehn and Yahr as stages 1-3). The standing balance was assessed by measuring the centre of pressure (CoP) displacement in single-task (eyes-open/eyes-closed) and dual-task (while performing two different verbal fluency tasks). No significant differences were found between the groups regarding sociodemographic variables. In general, the standing balance of the individuals with PD was worse than the controls, as the CoP displacement across tasks was significantly higher for the individuals with PD (p<0.01), both in anteroposterior and mediolateral directions. Moreover, there were significant differences in the CoP displacement based parameters between the conditions, mainly between the eyes-open condition and the remaining conditions. However, there was no significant interaction found between group and condition, which suggests that changes in the CoP displacement between tasks were not influenced by having PD. In conclusion, this study shows that, although individuals with PD had a worse overall standing balance than individuals without the disease, the impact of performing an additional task on the CoP displacement is similar for both groups.

A new technique to test the effect of cognition on standing balance in Parkinson’s disease

“…An MDC% value of 10%-20% would be considered an acceptable level to detect meaningful change due to an intervention.The results gained from this study demonstrated a signifi cant increase in the magnitude of COP displacement during all dualtask conditions. Other studies have also reported an increase in COP displacement during standing while performing a verbal fl uency task[20], a digital span recall task[22] and a backward counting task[19]. The present study also observed a signifi cant decline in the performance of the VMT and VCG tasks when tested in standing on the compliant sponge surface versus sitting.…”

“…Various tests and rating scales have been used to assess balance disorders in PD [11][12][13]. A number of studies that have [20,23,24].…”

Impacto da doença de Parkinson na performance do equilíbrio em diferentes demandas atencionais

“…In this sense, for verifying the impact of DT on stability and postural control, studies have compared the balance between healthy subjects and with PD in simple conditions and DT condition with EO and EC, in two-feet support. The results observed from the force platform showed that individuals with PD presented worse performance than healthy individuals in all evaluations, with higher values of COP displacement, corresponding to greater postural instability and, also, that the performance of the tests with EC and in association with DT are worse when compared to tests with EO for both groups [27][28][29] . These results confirm our findings, but we believe that the evaluation in Tandem position, for being more challenging, can be a more effective predictor of balance disorders, bringing additional information when compared to two-feet position, besides being a very important functional position to this population.…”

A 12-Week Cycling Training Regimen Improves Gait and Executive Functions Concomitantly in People with Parkinson’s Disease

“…In contrast, there is growing evidence documenting the association between standing balance and gait initiation with cognition in PD population, but in a dual-tasking context (Fernandes et al, 2015, 2016). The latter have shown that some cognitive processes, such as executive functions, processing speed and semantic fluency (Smulders et al, 2013; Stegemoller et al, 2014) are associated with some gait parameters and functional mobility in PD.…”