Effect of Qigong Exercise on Sleep Quality and Gait Performance in Parkinson's Disease

Abstract

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) involves a variety of motor and non-motor symptoms. Current medical therapy has been successful at managing a majority of these features; however, several issues, including gait complications and sleeping disorders, may involve impairments not fully resolved by standard therapy. This study aimed to determine the impact of Qigong as a potential complementary therapy in the management of gait and sleep related symptoms in PD. Methods: Seven subjects (age 66.86 ± 8.13 years) with PD participated in a six-week Qigong exercise intervention. Pre- and post-intervention testing was performed to assess sleep quality, fatigue, and gait performance in these subjects. Standard clinical assessments specific to PD were used for the assessment of sleep quality and fatigue. Gait performance was assessed using three-dimensional motion capture during the completion of several tasks. Overall gait performance (stride time, stride length, double support time, and velocity), gait variability (stride time variability and stride length variability), and turning performance (number of steps and total time to turn) were analyzed in the gait tasks. Results: Following the intervention, subjects showed a general trend of improvements in sleep quality. Fatigue remained unchanged. Assessment of gait performance showed significant improvement in overall gait function and gait variability, and no apparent change in turn performance. Gait function was improved by a significant reduction of stride time and a slight increase in stride length. Together these changes resulted in significant improvements to gait velocity. Additionally, time spent in double support was reduced following the intervention. Overall gait variability improved significantly, particularly in the reduction of stride time variability. Conclusions: These results suggest that the Qigong intervention implemented for this group may provide potential benefits to people with PD in regards to gait performance and sleep quality. Further studies are required to provide a more definitive measure of these results with increased statistical power.