Exercise, physical fitness, and Parkinson's disease: an 8-year follow-up study

BACKGROUND: The progression of Parkinson's Disease is variable, leading to a poor pharmacological response, as the effect of medication is reduced due to adaptation. Physical therapy is established as adjuvant treatment on physical conditions. The aim of this study was to monitor the level of physical fitness and anthropometric parameters of patients diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, who had participated in physical exercise programs for 8-years. METHODS: Seventy-one patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (53.50% males), mean age 71.19 +/- 9.04 years old, with a mean disease stage of 2.52 +/- 0.77 (Hoehn and Yahr Scale). All patients underwent an assessment of fitness and body composition at baseline (2011), 4-years, and 8-years. RESULTS: The study of the anthropometric parameters showed that throughout the 8 years of follow-up, the BMI has not undergone significant changes and shows a small upward trend for both men (0.30%, sig=0.938) and women (-0.10%, sig=0.817). This same behavior was reflected by the weight in men (1.36%, sig=0.315) and in women (-0.35%, sig=0.787). In terms of physical fitness, men showed a trend towards a deterioration in this parameter over the 8 years of follow-up (Sigma Fitness=-1.82%, sig=0.930), while women showed a trend towards improvement (Sigma Fitness=0.96%, sig=0.821). The same is recorded for strength and flexibility, where the data suggest that these are two of the variables that deteriorated the most over the 8 years of the study. CONCLUSIONS: After an 8-year follow-up, no significant changes in FC parameters affected by the progression of a neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson's disease have been identified. The 8-foot up and go test has shown correlations with the other physical tests used.