Adults with Parkinson’s disease undergoes exergaming training to improve balance: A systematic review

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease, which is affecting millions of people globally. One common problem in PD patients are postural instability which can lead to balance control impairment. PD patients’ postural instability is currently one of the most difficult challenges the physician encounters when treating the patients with this long duration of disease. However, previous studies have shown that exergaming is a popular treatment for improving balance of PD patients. The purpose of this study was systematic review of exergaming training intervention and outcomes of balance among participants with PD. The search terms “exergaming,” “exergames,” “balance,” “Parkinson’s disease” “Virtual reality” and “Postural instability” were used in three electronic databases, Science direct, Pubmed and Scopus. eleven studies were systematically reviewed using the synthesis matrix. The results indicated that the exergaming training group of PD participants ranged from 1 to 76. The training duration and frequency was between 20 minutes to 60 minutes, one to three times a week, for a period of 6 to 12 weeks. In terms of research methodology, most studies reviewed conducted randomized controlled trial, while two studies administered semi-experimental design and one study conducted single subject experimental design. The results of these studies indicated many benefits of exergaming training among PD participants, such as, balance, gait, fatigue and postural instability. In conclusion exergaming intervention is recommended as postural stability treatment for PD participants. This study may be used as a guide for future reference when designing exergaming balance training for future studies or rehabilitation application.