Being limited by Parkinson’s disease and struggling to keep up exercising; is the group the glue?

Abstract

Background: People with Parkinson’s disease find that exercise helps to improve their physical performance. However, when performed in a group, they also tend to appreciate each other’s company.

Purpose: After people with Parkinson’s disease participated in a community-based group balance exercise program, our aims were to explore the participants’ general attitude to their balance ability and exercise, and specifically their experiences of participating in a group exercise.

Materials and Methods: Informants were people living with Parkinson’s disease at an early stage (n = 15) who had participated in a community-based “Somatosensory Focused Balance Training without Cues.” Each informant took part in one face-to-face interview. The interviews were transcribed, according to content analysis, coded independently by two researchers and triangulated together with a third experienced researcher. Categories and themes were derived in consensus.

Results: The participants felt limited by their body. They agreed that the group balance exercise program did help with their balance control. Moreover, the vast majority found that the group context implied a positive social contribution to their lives and to their ability to cope with living with the disease.

Conclusion: Group balance exercise might constitute a context with potential to improve quality of life for people with Parkinson’s disease, not only by improving balance control, but also contributing to social connections, fellowship and the exchange of mutual experiences.

Implications for rehabilitation

• Group-based exercise in early Parkinson seems to add more than just the physical effects of training, since it also gives a platform for meeting social and emotional needs, as well as addressing physical ability.

• The group dynamics and the support of peers seem to promote a positive attitude to life and enable people to learn coping strategies from each other.

• Community-based exercise groups for people with early Parkinson seem to be a way to get out in society and regain a feeling of being part of society.

• Due to body limits, people with Parkinson’s disease must struggle daily, already at an early stage of their disease; this stresses the need to begin rehabilitation early.

Keywords:

• Balance
• exercise
• exercise perception
• group training
• Parkinson’s disease

Disclosure statement

• No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by grants from the National Doctor School of Health Care and Sciences at Karolinska Institutet, the Stockholm City Council, Neuro Sweden, and the Norrbacka-Eugenia Foundation.