Background: Parkinsonism is a progressive disorder of the nervous system for which only symptomatic treatment exists. Balance dysfunction and postural instability observed in persons with Parkinson's disease are important components of the disability. Objectives: To investigate the effect of a selective 8-week Pilates exercises on the functional balance and falling risk in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease. Methods: This randomized controlled trial included 30 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease who were selected as subjects non-randomly and purposely, and assigned into exercise groups or control group. Participants in exercise and control groups attended an 8-week Pilate's program or walking program respectively. Functional balance and falling risk was evaluated using Fullerton balance scale (FAB) and timed up and go test (TUG), before and after interventions. In order to analyze the data paired samples T-test and independent samples T-test and SPSS version 22 were used. Results: Attending an eight-week Pilates exercise was associated with a significant improvement in functional balance and falling risk (P = 0.001), while the difference of the functional balance and falling risk, before and after performing the protocol, in control group was not significant (P = 0.364). Also the difference between the results of functional balance and falling risk scale scores of two groups in post-test were significant (P = 0.001). Conclusions: Given that Pilate's exercises involve both musculoskeletal system and nervous system, can be an effective intervention to improving balance and reducing falling risk, especially in people with postural control disabilities.

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Purpose: Long term effects of poliomyelitis are known in many countries. Despite no definite label for these signs and symptoms, there is a remarkable similarity among patients with regard to description of the problems and complications of the disease. In this study, we compared the prevalence of symptoms of Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS) in athlete and non-athlete poliomyelitis survivors.Methods: This is a causal-comparative study. The statistical population consisted of all people who had polio in Kerman Province. Of them, 28 people (9 males and 19 females) with the mean(SD) age of 36.61(8.23) years were purposefully selected as the study samples and were grouped in athlete and non-athlete samples. The athlete group comprised 15 people with an mean(SD) age of 34.62(9.42) years who were engaged in physical activities, including swimming, table tennis and sitting volleyball, 3 times a week (on average) during the last year. The non-athlete group also consisted of 15 people with an mean(SD) age of 6.91(38.33) years who didn't do any regular physical activity during this time. With respect to the major indexes of PPS, the symptoms of this syndrome were examined using quality of life questionnaire (SF-36), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), and McGill pain questionnaire to evaluate mental and physical function, fatigue and muscular pain, respectively in the study groups. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Pearson correlation coefficient and Independent t test with SPSS V-22. The significance level was set at P≤0.05. Results:The results indicate a high prevalence rate of PPS syndrome including main symptoms of pain and fatigue (57.53%). Results also support a significant difference between the physical health of athlete and non-athlete groups (P=0.02), while no significant difference was observed between these two groups with respect to their mental health status. Also, there was a significant difference between the athlete and non-athlete people in terms of the fatigue (P=0.04) and pain intensity (P=0.04). Moreover, there was a significant relationship between the age at the first attack of polio and fatigue (r=0.59) and physical health (r=0.69), while there was no significant relationship between the age at the first attack of the disease and pain (r=0.24) and mental health (r=-0.09).Conclusion: Regular physical activity can help patients with a history of polio achieve higher level of health and lower level of functional impairments. Improving the physical condition of these patients through training programs can play an important role in improving their quality of life.