A personalised, gait training telerehabilitation programme for people with Parkinson's Disease: A long-term pilot study.
Giovanna Lopane, Ilaria D'Ascanio, Mattia Corzani and 13 others
PMID 40660084WHAT IT FOUND
Nine-month home gait training was safe and feasible for people with Parkinson's, but overall adherence missed the 75% target.
Those with moderate disease stuck to it and showed some improvement; those with advanced disease struggled to keep up and reported lower satisfaction.
Key findings
01The programme was safe and feasible, with 85% of participants completing the study and no adverse events reported.
02Overall adherence to the training protocol was 64.4%, failing to meet the 75% feasibility threshold, though participants with Hoehn and Yahr stage 2 achieved 80.5% adherence.
03There were no significant pre-post differences in primary clinical outcomes for the whole group, although dual-task Timed Up and Go time significantly improved for participants with Hoehn and Yahr stage 2.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was a small, open-label pilot with no control group, so it cannot determine if the improvements were due to the intervention or other factors. Adherence and outcomes were significantly worse for participants with advanced disease (H&Y stage 3), limiting the generalisability of the findings to this population. The study was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected training continuity and recruitment timelines differently in the two countries. Dropouts were excluded from the analysis, which may bias the results towards those who were more successful or adherent. Participants continued their usual care, including physical therapy, so the specific contribution of the Gait Tutor system cannot be isolated.
Declared interests
The research was funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Israel Ministry of Health. No commercial conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of significant overall clinical change as a failure of the intervention. The study was powered for feasibility, not efficacy, and the subgroup with moderate disease showed promising adherence and functional gains that were masked by the poorer performance of the advanced disease group.