Promoting Exercise in Parkinson’s Disease Through community-based Participatory Research

Abstract

SUMMARY Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic, progressive, as-of-yet incurable, neurodegenerative condition affecting the nigro–striatal dopaminergic system. Emerging evidence suggests the importance of exercise in improving the trajectory of PD. Yet few people with PD are physically active. One challenge that healthcare professionals face in the 21st century is how to deliver physical activity programs to the population of individuals living with PD. A novel approach to delivering physical activity to people with PD is introduced – termed community-based participatory research (CBPR) – which engages people with PD and patient advocates as co-researchers in the development and implementation of community-based exercise programs. The authors describe the CBPR approach and provide several recent examples of community exercise programs that are steps in the direction of developing the CBPR model. This is followed by a discussion of what a more fully realized CBPR model might look like. Finally, the authors describe some obstacles to conducting CBPR and suggest strategies for overcoming them. It is argued that people with PD are an integral component of delivering the exercise intervention.

Is Irish set dancing feasible for people with Parkinson's disease in Ireland?

“…It is plausible that the intervention dosage was insufficient as participants only completed 130 min of dancing per week over eight weeks. This dosage is lower than previous studies used [19,20,47] and does not meet the recommendations for weekly physical activity [48]. It is also possible that a higher dosage is needed to significantly improve motor impairment (measured on the UPDRS-3) given that a trend toward improvement was observed in this study.…”

Enhanced Exercise Therapy in Parkinson's disease: A comparative effectiveness trial

“…However, a significant barrier to physical activity is active engagement. Active engagement can be fostered through the integration of peers with PD and caregivers into an exercise program 8 , 9 . Development of community-based programs, which integrate peer advocates, are likely to empower individuals with PD to overcome physical and emotional barriers 10 to physical activity 8 , 11 , 12 .…”

Auditing the Physical Activity and Parkinson Disease Literature Using the Behavioral Epidemiologic Framework

“…There also was one study that focused on the use of a virtual exercise coach to encourage physical activity [188]. In phase 5, there were 2 studies that discussed future research for community based wellness programs for individuals with PD [189,190].…”

“…Less than 5% of the articles we located in our search were categorized into phases 4 or 5. Of note, both articles in phase 5 discussed the importance of using community‐based participatory research) as an approach to engage people with PD in program development and implementation [189,190] yet this approach was not discussed in any phase 4 article. Although the evidence in phase 4 demonstrates an appreciation for the complexity of reducing sedentary behavior in people with PD, a greater emphasis on evaluating and disseminating effective interventions is required.…”