Effects of Aerobic Exercise on Disease Severity and Walking Ability in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

Purpose: This study was conducted to explore the effects of aerobic exercise on the severity of disease and walking ability in patients with Parkinson's disease.Methods: Twelve patients with Parkinson's disease participated in the study.Participants were randomly assigned to either an aerobic exercise group (n= 6) or a self-exercise group (n= 6).All participants underwent treadmill training for 30 minutes.In addition, the experimental group (aerobic exercise group) and control group (self-exercise group) participated in a 30 minutes exercise program.In both groups, exercise was performed five times a week for four weeks.Outcome including disease severity (Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale) and walking ability (10 m walking speed test, 6 minutes walking test, timed up-and-go test) were measured at baseline and after 4-weeks.Results: Significant differences in disease severity and walking ability were observed between the pre-and post-exercise groups (p< 0.05).The improvement of disease severity and walking endurance was significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group (p< 0.05).Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that aerobic exercise is effective at improving disease severity and walking endurance in patients with Parkinson's disease.