Nintendo Wii^TMversus Xbox Kinect^TM for functional locomotion in people with Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the effectiveness of commercial exergames treatments on people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), a systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) of randomised controlled trials (RCT) was performed to evaluate functional locomotion effects in patients with PD.

Methods

A comprehensive search on PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, the Cochrane, and other databases without language restrictions was conducted. References and reviews were cross-checked for possible studies. RCTs from 2012 were included. Seven studies with 236 participants were included in the NMA that used a random-effect Frequentist model to investigate the standard mean difference of pooled effect sizes change in functional locomotion between baseline and delayed retention tests on six comparisons.

Results

The direct comparisons Kinect: Control (n = 4), Wii: Control (n = 5) and the indirect-network comparison Kinect: Wii (n = 1) determine that Nintendo Wii™ may be the best choice in functional locomotion improvements.

Conclusions

These network meta-analytic findings show that Kinect and Wii show immediate positive effects on functional locomotion in people with PD. Compared with Kinect RCTs, Wii may be considered the best therapy for providing functional recovery in PD.

Implications for rehabilitation

• Exergames rehabilitation reveals intervention benefits for functional locomotion in people with PD.

• In patients with cognitive disorders, Wii’s platform can be considered a visual reference and a cue to facilitate patients with freezing.

• Nintendo Wii seems to be a better device for locomotion rehabilitation in people with PD than Xbox Kinect.

Keywords:

• Wii
• Kinect
• Parkinson’s disease
• exergames
• network meta-analysis

Disclosure statement

The material was not presented at an AAPM&R Annual Assembly and do not have any funding source. The authors declare that they have no financial interest or advantage deriving from the direct applications of my research.