The Effectiveness of Equine Therapy Intervention on Activities of Daily Living, Quality of Life, Mood, Balance and Gait in Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of equine therapy (ET) to detect changes in the activities of daily living, quality of life, mood, balance, and gait in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Material and Methods: In the study, 17 participants with PD were recruited to participate in 10 sessions of ET. The inclusion criteria of the study were: second and third stages of the Hoehn and Yahr scale, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) greater than or equal to 24 points, and age up to 85 years. The outcome measures administered at the beginning and the end of treatment relied on measurements from the Rivermead ADL scale, Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire-39 (PDQ-39), Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale (UPDRS), and Tinetti balance assessment. Data from the stabilometric platform were also collected to objectify the value obtained by the Tinetti balance assessment. The ET program included 10 biweekly 45 min sessions. Results: The results obtained included statistically significant increases in measurements from the Rivermead ADL, PDQ-39, UPDRS, SDS, and Tinetti balance assessment scales. The stabilometric platform did not report significant changes in data. Conclusion: ET that was used as a supportive therapy for traditional treatments resulted in statistically significant improvements in the occupational performance, mood, quality of life, gait, and balance of the participants. Data from the stabilometric platform did not show significant changes.

Provision of Outdoor Nature-Based Activity for Older People with Cognitive Impairment: A Scoping Review from the ENLIVEN Project

“…However, studies of people with conditions other than dementia, such as stroke survivors, typically did not recruit based on age or cognitive impairment. Terefore, we considered but had to exclude a small number of studies that did not meet criteria for either age or cognitive impairment, for example, studies of forest walking for poststroke depression and anxiety [65], nature-based rehabilitation for poststroke fatigue, anxiety, and depression [66], and equine therapy for gait, balance, and mood in Parkinson's disease [67,68]. Tis meant that in practice, all the included studies focused on people with dementia, a condition where the presence of cognitive impairment is a given, but a small proportion of people are diagnosed below the age of 65.…”

Potential Mechanisms of Action and Outcomes of Equine-Assisted Services for Veterans with a History of Trauma: A Narrative Review of the Literature

“…In addition to transdiagnostic benefits, the literature suggests that EASs are associated with a reduction in symptoms associated with specific psychiatric disorders. As stated above, studies of community populations have reported benefits for a variety of psychiatric conditions [80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97]99,100,142,143], including trauma-related symptoms [66,[104][105][106][107]. Veteranspecific studies have reported an improved effect [51,[56][57][58]109,110], and psychological flexibility [57,58], as well as decreased anxiety [51,56,59,60], depression [46,50,53,[57][58][59][60][61...…”

Pilotstudie pferdegestützte Therapie bei Morbus Parkinson

“…quantitative Messung der körperlichen Aktivität über Pedometer (Marke Omron) [21,22] 0 T0 In der Literatur finden sich Einzelfallberichte und eine unkontrollierte Single-Center-Studie aus Italien [23] mit mittlerem Evidenzlevel, die unsere Ergebnisse bestätigen.…”

“…Messungen mit der Kraftmessplatte erscheinen von untergeordneter Aussagekraft. Dieses Ergebnis steht in Einklang mit den Untersuchungen von Berardi et al [23].…”