Tandem Cycling With Caregivers Could Improve Health in Patients With PD, Pilot Study Suggests
A tandem cycling program for patients with Parkinson disease and their caregivers (PD dyads) may help to improve the health and well-being of both PD patients and their care partners, according to recent results from a pilot study to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 76th Annual Meeting.
“Our study found that a unique cycling program that pairs people with Parkinson disease with their care partners can improve the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of both cyclists to improve their quality of life,” said author Jennifer Trilk, PhD, of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Greenville. “It is just as important that care partners also receive care, so that is why we included them as the cycling partner.”
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In this study, PD dyads underwent pre-testing measures such as emotional and cognitive status questionnaires and physical assessments, including the Brief Resiliency Scale, Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form, Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UDPRS), and a 10-meter gait speed test, among others. Following Prisma Health Institutional Board approval, PD dyads engaged in tandem cycling sessions on an indoor, stationary bike twice a week for 8 weeks in 15- to 45-minute sessions. Post-testing measures were conducted 48 hours after the last session, and statistical analysis was performed to assess changes from pre-testing using paired t-tests at a significance level of p<0.05, with changes reported using the standard error of the mean (SEM) due to the pilot study design.
In total, 18 participants were included, made up of 9 PD dyads. Following the intervention, care partners showed individual improvements in overall resiliency and significant reductions in depression scores. Among PD patients, while there was no significant change in the overall PDQ-39 score, there was a notable improvement in mobility (-13.61, SEM=4.49, 95% CI=[-23.96,-3.26], p=0.02). Additionally, there were significant decreases in total UDPRS scores (-7.38, SEM=1.28, 95% CI=[-10.40,-4.35], p<0.01) and significant improvements in 10-meter gait speeds post-intervention (+0.27 m/s, SEM=0.06, 95% CI=[0.14,0.4], p<0.01).
“Future studies should be conducted with larger cohorts of participants to further explore the effectiveness of a tandem cycling intervention in PD dyads,” authors concluded.
References
Reyes R, Sadek A, Djerdjour, L, et al. Functional and cognitive benefits of a community tandem cycling exercise intervention on patients with Parkinson’s disease and their care partners. American Academy of Neurology. Presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 76th Annual Meeting.
