Effect of Obstacle Negotiation Training on Gait Parameters in Individuals with Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease

Background and purpose: Gait disturbances are very common in Parkinson's disease. The reduction of stride length is considered the most prominent feature of Parkinson's gait often accompanied by lower walking speed 6,7. Traditional gait training generally fails to fully address these deficits. Thus, the main objective of this study was to check the effectiveness of obstacle negotiation training on gait parameters in individuals with idiopathic Parkinson's disease.

Subject and method: 24 subjects with Idiopathic Parkinson's disease were randomly allocated to one of the two groups: Experimental group (group 1, n = 12) received 6 sessions of conventional therapy along with obstacle negotiation training and the control group (group 2, n = 12) received only the conventional training. Performance of both the groups was evaluated on 10m walkway (normalized stride length, cadence and walking speed).

Results: The post intervention gait parameters of experimental group were more statistically significant over control group with p

Conclusion: Obstacle negotiation training has a significant impact in improving normalized stride length, cadence and walking speed in Idiopathic Parkinson's disease.