Effect of stair-walking in Parkinson patients

Gait problem are among the primary symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and lead significantly to a patient’s loss of function and independence. Gait training in Parkinson patients as an important component among the treatment to improve gait ability. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of stair-walking in Parkinson patients. Sixteen Thai Parkinson patients within stage 2-3 of the Modified Hoehn and Yahr disability scales volunteered to participate in this study. Seven subjects in control group (age 71.29±12.16 years) received ground walking at home with supervision and closed monitor. Nine subjects in experimental group (age 64.67±.52 years) received stair-walking training program. Two groups received training program 30 minutes 3 times/week for 4 weeks. All received gait ability measurement (step initiation time, gait speed, step length and step frequency) before and after training. An alpha level of 0.05 was used to determine statistical significant. Result: Post training, the experimental and the control groups showed significant decrease in the error of gait ability (p is less than 0.05) in all parameters. Post training, the experimental group showed a significant improve in mean difference of gait speed and step length (p is less than 0.05) when compare with the control group. Even mean difference of step initiation time and step frequency showed not significant, but there were more improvement than control group. Conclusion: The stair-walking training program can be recommended for improvement of gait ability in Parkinson patients with mild to moderate severity. It may stimulate as visual cue and gradual implicit motor learning of rhythmic walking.