The Effects of Attentional Instructions and Exercise with Resistance Socks on the Static and Dynamic Balance of Parkinson's Patients

 During life, many factors cause functional impairment and imbalance in body balance process. One of these disabilities and functional impairment is Parkinson's Disease. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of attentional instructions and exercise with resistance socks on the static and dynamic balance of Parkinson's patients.

 In order to investigate this, 25 females (Mean±SD: 62.20±2.31) were purposefully selected among the patients with Parkinson's disease with over 60 years of age in Shahrood City and were randomly assigned into five experimental groups: 1. External attentional instruction group along with exercise with resistance socks; 2. Internal attentional instruction group along with exercise with resistance socks; 3. External attentional instruction group along with exercise without resistance socks; 4. Internal attentional instruction group along with resistance exercise without socks; and 5. Resistance exercises group without socks and without justifying instructions. The training protocol of present study was 90 minutes, three times a week for 8 weeks in a state of exercises in water for each of the five groups of resistance and non-resistance training. The static and dynamic balance of participants was recorded in the pretest-posttest phases.

 The findings of One-way Covariance Analysis (ANCOVA) showed that the external attentional instruction group along with exercise with resistance socks performed better than other groups in the static equilibrium index, only in the open eye conditions (P= 0.04, η2= 0.31). These findings were repeated in the dynamic equilibrium index (P= 0.02, η2= 0.44). 

 According to the findings of present study, it is suggested to coaches and therapists to use external attentional instructions along with exercise with resistance socks during their training and modifying interventions in the water to improve the patient's static and dynamic equilibrium. However, future supplementary studies are suggested.