Moderate Versus High Volume Light-Moderate Intensity Exercise for People With Moderate Parkinson's Disease

Conditions

• Movement Disorders
• Neurodegeneration
• Parkinson Disease

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

40 Years - N/A

Healthy Volunteers

Not accepted

Interventions

• HV-PDAE: High Volume Partnered Dance Aerobic Exercise — BEHAVIORAL
  HV-PDAE classes will meet 5 times a week for 90 minute sessions for 3 weeks at onset of trial and then every 4 weeks for a year. All participants will receive 112.5h of training. PDAE was adapted for older adults with balance impairments; modifications were made to the frame and steps of Argentine tango. People with PD partner an individual without PD, e.g., staff, caregiver, friend, or university student. The instructor, staff lead and assistants monitor participants for safety. Class sizes will consist of 6 or fewer pairs of participants with PD and partners. Participants with PD will dance with new partners (individuals without PD) every 15-20 minutes. Participants will learn new steps in each class. The class format includes practicing steps, warm-up, partnering and rhythmic exercises, learning new steps, combining old and new steps, cool down. PDAE classes follow a syllabus with new steps, rhythms and embellishments included in each class.
• MV-PDAE: Moderate Volume Partnered Dance Aerobic Exercise — BEHAVIORAL
  MV-PDAE: MV classes will meet biweekly for 52 weeks for 65-minute sessions. All participants will receive 112.5h of training. . PDAE was adapted for older adults with balance impairments; modifications were made to the frame and steps of Argentine tango. People with PD partner an individual without PD, e.g., staff, caregiver, friend, or university student. The instructor, staff lead and assistants monitor participants for safety. Class sizes will consist of 6 or fewer pairs of participants with PD and partners. Participants with PD will dance with new partners (individuals without PD) every 15-20 minutes. Participants will learn new steps in each class. The class format includes practicing steps, warm-up, partnering and rhythmic exercises, learning new steps, combining old and new steps, cool down. PDAE classes follow a syllabus with new steps, rhythms and embellishments included in each class.
• MV-WALK: Moderate Volume Walking — BEHAVIORAL
  MV-WALK (65-minute sessions): WALK will control for the walking that participants in PDAE do and will also take place in groups to control social effects of intervention. Walking for

Study Details

Veterans with mid to later stage Parkinson's disease (PD) may not be able to work out as hard as they need to, to prevent brain cell loss. Maybe they could work out longer and more frequently to make up for this during their good times and good weeks and then rest during the bad weeks. The investigators will compare how effective working out a lot one week per month with a break of three weeks is to continuously exercising weekly with no breaks in people with mid stage PD. The investigators will look at how fast participants walk per minute, whether they become more physically active, the biochemicals in their blood, and at how stiff their blood vessels are before and after the exercise.

Key Dates

Start date

Jan 25, 2025

Status verified

Feb 2026

Primary completion

Jan 29, 2028

Completion

Jun 2, 2029

Study Design

Enrollment

123 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Arms

• Experimental: HV-PDAE: High Volume Partnered Dance Aerobic Exercise
  HV-PDAE classes will meet 5 times a week for 90 minute sessions for 3 weeks at onset of trial and then every 4 weeks for a year. All participants will receive 112.5h of training. PDAE was adapted for older adults with balance impairments; modifications were made to the frame and steps of Argentine tango. People with PD partner an individual without PD, e.g., staff, caregiver, friend, or university student. The instructor, staff lead and assistants monitor participants for safety. Class sizes will consist of 6 or fewer pairs of participants with PD and partners. Participants with PD will dance with new partners (individuals without PD) every 15-20 minutes. Participants will learn new steps in each class. The class format includes practicing steps, warm-up, partnering and rhythmic exercises, learning new steps, combining old and new steps, cool down. PDAE classes follow a syllabus with new steps, rhythms and embellishments included in each class.
• Active Comparator: MV-PDAE: Moderate Volume Partnered Dance Aerobic Exercise
  MV-PDAE: MV classes will meet biweekly for 52 weeks for 65-minute sessions. All participants will receive 112.5h of training. . PDAE was adapted for older adults with balance impairments; modifications were made to the frame and steps of Argentine tango. People with PD partner an individual without PD, e.g., staff, caregiver, friend, or university student. The instructor, staff lead and assistants monitor participants for safety. Class sizes will consist of 6 or fewer pairs of participants with PD and partners. Participants with PD will dance with new partners (individuals without PD) every 15-20 minutes. Participants will learn new steps in each class. The class format includes practicing steps, warm-up, partnering and rhythmic exercises, learning new steps, combining old and new steps, cool down. PDAE classes follow a syllabus with new steps, rhythms and embellishments included in each class.
• Active Comparator: MV-WALK: Moderate Volume Walking
  MV-WALK (65-minute sessions): WALK will control for the walking that participants in PDAE do and will also take place in groups to control social effects of intervention. Walking for exercise expends 3 METS, like PDAE. (Knaggs et al., 2011) 65 minute sessions will consist of 15 minutes of warmup exercises, 45 minutes of walking with breaks ad libitum, and a 5-minute cool down. Setting will be a designated, safe, non-cluttered area for walking- indoors or outdoors. This protocol is in line with recommendations for gait training to improve gait parameters, i.e., 2-3 days per week, for 30-60 minutes and with evidence that light-moderate intensity walking programs can lead to gains in gait parameters.

Primary Outcome Measure

Gait cadence [ Time Frame: 52 weeks ]

Central Contacts

• Madeleine E Hackney, PhD
  (404) 321-6111
  [email protected]
• Joe R Nocera, PhD
  (404) 321-6111
  [email protected]

Locations (1)

Find similar trials in Decatur, GA

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