Influence of muscle strengthening in the balance and quality of life in individuals with Parkinson's disease

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of muscle strengthening in the balance, mobility and quality of life (QoL) in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD), and to check the correlation between muscle strengthening and QoL. Nine subjects belonging to both sexes, diagnosed with PD, participated in this study. Initially, they went through an evaluation of their balance and functional mobility through the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), the ­Timed Up and Go (TUG) test, and a QoL test through the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39). The subjects also performed a test for determining the maximum load (one-repetition maximum) for the muscle groups trained. After the normality and homogeneity of the data were verified, the Student's t-test and Spearman correlation test were carried out. A significance level of p<0.05 was considered. We verified an improvement in balance (p=0.008) and QoL (p=0.013), and a negative correlation between balance and QoL (evaluation: r=-0.65 and p=0.05, revaluation: r=-0.82 and p=0.005). It was concluded that muscle strengthening was efficient in the improvement of balance and QoL in individuals with PD.