Improving balance for people living with Parkinson's
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Using biofeedback during exergaming to attenuate alpha oscillations to improve postural control in people living with Parkinson's.
IRAS ID
324686
Contact name
Qadeer Arshad
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leicester
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
People living with Parkinson’s (PwP) rank balance problems amongst the most disabling symptom. Over time, balance function continues to decline and PwP go on to fall, affecting between 45-68% of PwP. Falling directly impacts upon the individuals’ quality of life (QoL), as it prevents them from doing everyday activities, and places PwP at greater risk of other medical problems, such as fractures.
New treatments are urgently needed to improve balance and reduce falls in order to improve QoL for PwP. The aim of this project is to achieve these goals by using exercise to alter brain activity. Supporting our idea, are previous studies that show both exercise alone as well as changing brain activity at rest via visual feedback (similar to how you can control your breathing to lower your blood pressure), can be used to rehabilitate balance. Here we test the idea that better results can be achieved for PwP, if we use a specific exercise program as the feedback to change brain activity.
PwP will be assigned randomly into 2 groups, one receiving the exergaming physical therapy (PT) alone with a placebo feedback and, the second group will be required to change brain activity using exercise feedback to change brain activity.Each intervention will be performed 3 times/week with each session lasting ½ an hour, for 12 consecutive weeks. Assessments of balance will be made before and after all three treatments. This will allow us to measure any improvements and compare the 2 different methods to see which one improves balance the most in PwP.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/EM/0103
Date of REC Opinion
15 Jun 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion