NCT00964652

Treadmill Training With Additional Body Load: Effects on Gait of Subjects With Parkinson´s Disease

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 9 (actual)
• Sponsor: Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 51 Years – 81 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Background: Studies about the effects of walking training with additional body load in Parkinson's disease (PD) are lacking. There is evidence that the increase of body load during treadmill walking improves reflex activity and leg extensor muscle activity, which are impaired in subjects with PD. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of treadmill walking training with additional body load on the ground reaction forces, spatiotemporal, and kinematic variables of the gait of subjects with moderate PD. Design: This study was an A1-B-A2 single-case. Setting: The evaluation and the training were conducted in a movement analysis laboratory, and at the rehabilitation unit of the University, respectively. Participants: Nine patients with PD (Hoehn and Yahr 2 through 3) and gait disturbances. Interventions: Phases A1 and A2 included 6 weeks of gait training on a treadmill with 10% increase of normal body mass. Phase B included 6 weeks of conventional physical therapy. Measurements: Measures included the ground reaction forces, spatiotemporal, and kinematic variables during overground walking, at baseline and after each phase.

Conditions

• Parkinson´s Disease

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Treadmill walking training with additional body load	The training program was divided into three phases (A1-B-A2): treadmill training with additional body load (A1), control condition (conventional physical therapy) (B). and treadmill training with additional body load again (A2). Each phase lasted six weeks, totaling 18 weeks. Both evaluations and training were performed during on-phase of the medication cycle.

Timeline

• Start date: 2007-08-01
• Primary completion: 2008-12-01
• Completion: 2008-12-01
• First posted: 2009-08-25
• Last updated: 2009-08-25

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Brazil