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Tai Chi Training for People with Parkinson's Disease |
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People with Parkinson's Disease (PD) are faced with many difficulties, including muscle stiffness, tremors, slowness and proverty of movement, difficulty with balance, difficult walking, speech problems, and loss of voice. Certain types of physical activity such as walking, swimming, or gardening are considered important for people with PD in terms of maintaining daily activities and quality of life. However, concerns that people with PD have regarding mobility, balance control, and physical funtioning need to be addressed by the specific exercises for movement therapies.
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Tai Chi, a specific exercise modality shown to be effective in the general population for improving balance, physical functioning, and preventing falls may also be beneficial for individuals with PD. Since it may not routinely be feasible for people with PD to attend community exercise classes, the need for a suitably adapted instructional resource is warranted. To date, instructional media resourcs on Tai Chi are not tailored for patients with PD. |
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Phase I will develop a Parkinson's-specific Tai Chi exercise video program, including a video and user's manual. The program package will be pilot tested with a small group of potential users to gauge overall usability, effectivesness of content and presentation of the video material. This will be followed by a preliminary evaluation of the program in a sample of patients with respect to the primary outcome measures of program satisfaction, intention to use, performance efficacy, and frequencey of use, and secondary outcome measures of physical performance and attitudes regarding program acceptability an appropriateness. |
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