Prevalence of Balance Impairments in Individuals with Parkinson Disease

Abstract:Postural or balance impairments is most common feature of advanced Parkinson's disease leading to falls. Balance disorder is predisposing symptom in Parkinson disease, difficult to cure and at high risk of falls. Objective: To find out the Prevalence of balance impairments in individual with Parkinson's disease This was the cross-sectional study. Data was collected by 23 Parkinson's patients in General Hospital of Lahore. Convenient sampling technique was used in this study. Berg Balance scale was used as data collection instrument. Data was analyzed by SPSS. Results: The result shows that out of 23 sample size (18 male and 5 female), there is 15(65.2%) of Parkinson patients had minimal level of balance impairments, 6(26.1%) had moderate balance impairments and only 2(8.7%) of Parkinson patients complained about severe balance impairments on Berg Balance Scale.Conclusions: The result shows that there is mild to moderate prevalence of balance impairments in individual with Parkinson's disease. Balance dysfunction or impairments in Parkinson patients due to abnormal gait pattern, poor postural control,muscles rigidity, tremors and lose of body movements. Balance impairments not depend on age and gender of Parkinson patients. Balance impairments, Berg balance scale, Parkinson's disease