Counting in their head, walking to the rhythm of a metronome, using relaxation techniques or even changing their type of walking: people with Parkinson’s disease can use different strategies to overcome walking difficulties.
- More than 200,000 people in France live with Parkinson’s disease.
- It causes tremors at rest, generates slowness in movement and can disrupt walking.
- Regular physical activity is beneficial for patients with the disease.
Parkinson’s disease is often known for the tremors it generates, but this neurodegenerative pathology can cause various disorders, including those related to walking. There are methods to reduce the impact of these disorders on the movements of people affected. Dutch researchers have conducted research on this, published in the journal Neurology, of the American Neurological Association.
Disabling problems in everyday life
More than 4,000 people with Parkinson’s disease were interviewed for this research. All suffered from walking-related disorders such as imbalances, falls or blockages. Among them, 35% said that their walking difficulties were a handicap in their daily activities. More than half had one or more falls in the year preceding the study.
What are the possible strategies to avoid them?
“We know that people with Parkinson’s disease often spontaneously invent “detours” to overcome their walking difficulties, in order to remain mobile and independent.“, explains the author of the study, Anouk Tosserams. But there are seven known strategies to facilitate the daily life of the patients. It is also possible to set external benchmarks like a metronome. The third is based on a modification of the requirement related to balance, by making wider turns for example. This can also involve working on the mind, with relaxation techniques. Finally, it is also possible to focus on observation, by watching someone walk, to adapt your walking method, by walking backwards, or even to change the use of your legs, while riding a bike.
Strategies insufficiently known to patients
As part of this study, scientists asked participants if they had ever heard of these seven strategies, and if they had used them. They found that people with Parkinson’s commonly use gait compensation techniques, but are unaware of these seven specific strategies. 17% of people had never heard of any of these strategies and only 4% knew of all seven. On average, each person knew of three. However, when they had tried one of them, the participants generally confided that it had had a positive effect in reducing their disorders.
Context-dependent effectiveness
The researchers found that the strategies worked differently depending on the context in which the person used them. For example, motion visualization had an 83% success rate when people used it to walk outdoors, compared to 55% when they used it to navigate in a narrow space. “Our results suggest that a ‘one size fits all’ approach does not work because different contexts may require different strategies, or because individuals simply respond better to one strategy over another.“, concludes Anouk Tosserams.
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