Objective:

Background:

Aerobic exercise has been investigated as a therapeutic intervention for PD and is associated with improvement in motor function. However, its effects on distinct aspects of gait, balance, and mobility remain poorly understood. Furthermore, NMS represent a substantial burden for people with PD (PwP), yet prior studies examining the impact of aerobic exercise on NMS have been limited in scope and yielded inconsistent results.

Design/Methods:

In this pre-post intervention study, PwP completed supervised, high-intensity and unsupervised, moderate-intensity aerobic exercise for 5 days per week for 16 weeks. Subjects completed gait and balance assessments, neuropsychological testing, and non-motor symptom questionnaires evaluating sleep, fatigue, somnolence, and mood. Subjects’ scores were compared between baseline and post-intervention using paired sample t-tests.

Results:

Twenty-four participants completed the intervention; fifteen were female (62.5%). The mean age was 68.1 years (SD=5.7), the mean duration of disease was 5.2 years (SD=5.1), and the mean MDS-UPDRS Part III score was 28.3 (SD=9.6). Mean pre-post intervention score change (∆̅) on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (∆̅=2.00, 95% CI [0.54, 3.46], p=0.005) and Beck Depression Inventory (∆̅=1.52, 95% CI [0.46, 2.59], p=0.005) improved. Subjects showed improvement on the Short Physical Performance Battery (∆̅=-0.75, 95% CI [-1.17, -0.33], p=0.001). We observed no statistically significant differences in the remaining assessments.

Conclusions:

Aerobic exercise offers selective improvement in non-motor symptoms and functional mobility. Its recommendation to patients may thus improve quality of life, lessen medication burden, and reduce risk of falls. To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the effects of aerobic exercise on somnolence in PD.  Controlled studies with larger samples are warranted to confirm these findings and clarify mechanisms underlying these effects.