A Telemedicine Intervention to Improve Physical Function in Patients With PD

Background/Rationale:

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, affecting over one million Americans. The cardinal clinical manifestations of PD are motoric, which limit functional mobility leading to difficulty working, caring for family members, managing a household, and overall decreased independence and quality of life (QOL). A wealth of growing data indicates tremendous benefits of exercise for patients with PD. Not only have exercise programs been shown to improve motor function and reduce the risk of falls, but also improve overall QOL and possibly the very course of disease pathology. However, programs that involve supervision in the home of people with PD are expensive to roll out widely, and programs that involve people with PD traveling to a central site not only result in non-compliance over time because of difficulty getting to the site, but also rule out the involvement of a large number of people with PD who simply live too far from larger centers where such programs are typically established.

Objective:

The investigators hypothesize that a one-year in-home exercise program, centered around remote, real-time instruction and supervision, will reduce the rate of falls and improve strength and QOL in patients with PD.

Methods: