A recent study published in the journal of the American Academy of Neurology explores novel walking strategies that can benefit people with Parkinson's disease.
Various strategies can help people with Parkinson's who have difficulty walking, but a new study finds that many people have never heard of or tried these strategies. The research is published in the online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study also found that how well different compensation strategies worked depended on the context in which they were used, such as indoors versus outdoors, under time pressure or not.
"We know people with Parkinson's often spontaneously invent creative 'detours' to overcome their walking difficulties, in order to remain mobile and independent," said study author Anouk Tosserams, MD, of the Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
He added, "For example, people walk to the rhythm of a metronome, by mimicking the gait of another person, or by counting in their head. We found that people are rarely educated about all the different compensation strategies. When they are, people often find strategies that work better for them and their unique circumstances."
For the study, researchers surveyed 4,324 people with Parkinson's and disabling gait impairments. These include problems like imbalance, shuffling, falling, staggering and freezing. Of the participants, 35 per cent found that their walking difficulties affected their ability to perform their usual daily activities and 52 per cent had one or more falls in the past year. The survey explained the seven main categories of compensation strategies. Each category was explained and participants were asked if they were aware of it if they'd ever used it, and if so, how it worked for them in a variety of contexts. The strategies include:
Internal cueing, like walking to a count in your head
External cueing, like walking in rhythm to a metronome
Changing the balance requirement, like making wider turns
Altering mental state, which includes relaxation techniques
Action observation and motor imagery, which includes watching another person walk
Adapting a new walking pattern, like jumping or walking backwards
Other forms of using the legs, like bicycling and crawling.