English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience reduced balance ability and are prone to fall. As the disease advances with age, the traditional forms of physiotherapy are prone to fail in long-term exercise intervention as patients lose interest in performing the exercises. The use of virtual reality game technology consists of tasks in virtual environments that combine physical and cognitive demands in a fun and motivating manner which leads to adherence in a long-term exercise intervention. The objectives of the study were to know the adherence of Kinect adventure games in individuals with PD by attendance percentage of prescribed sessions and analyse the impact of balance after the games in them. METHODS An experimental study with pre-post design in which 11 individuals were selected, with a mean age of 67.8 years. Home-based balance exercises were given three days a week up to 6 weeks (18 sessions). Kinect adventure games were implemented for another six weeks. Adherence was measured by attendance percentage in terms of the frequency of sessions completed. The secondary outcome measure was to assess balance. Participants were evaluated before intervention and post-intervention using BESTest. Descriptive statistics were used to compare the BESTest scores of pre and post-intervention. RESULTS The adherence percentage of Kinect adventure game therapy was 38 %. The adherence percentage of home-based balance exercises was only 9 %. The best scores improved in home-based balance exercise compared to Kinect adventure game therapy. CONCLUSIONS The participants with Parkinson’s disease did not adhere to Kinect adventure game therapy. For the attended sessions the balance improved for home-based balance exercise compared to Kinect game therapy. KEY WORDS Exercise Barrier, Adherence, Balance Training, Virtual Reality, Video Games