Can telerehabilitation games lead to functional improvement of upper extremities in individuals with Parkinson's disease?
Imre Cikajlo, Alma Hukić, Irena Dolinšek and 7 others
PMID 29757774WHAT IT FOUND
Parkinson's patients who played a home 'Fruit Picking' game for three weeks wrote letters and moved light objects faster, and scored better on hand dexterity and motor exams.
No control group was used, so these gains cannot be separated from time or other factors.
Key findings
01Twenty-six of twenty-eight eligible patients completed the three-week home exergaming program without functional assistance, though only seven set up the hardware alone.
02Statistically significant improvements were found in writing a letter, moving light objects, the Box and Block Test, and the UPDRS III motor score.
03The study did not compare this game against conventional therapy, so it cannot show the intervention is better than standard care.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
There was no control group, so improvements cannot be attributed solely to the game; they could reflect natural variation, practice effects, or other concurrent activities. The sample was small (26 completers), and the study was underpowered for smaller effect sizes. Only seven participants could set up the equipment alone, meaning most relied on carers, which affects the claim of independent home use. The study did not monitor medication timing or other activities at home, relying entirely on patient reports. No follow-up period was included to see if improvements were retained after the program ended.
Declared interests
The authors state that the study was approved by the Ethics committee of the University Rehabilitation Institute, Republic of Slovenia. No specific funding sources or commercial conflicts of interest are declared in the provided text, though the game was developed using Unity and Kinect technologies.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this game is superior to or a replacement for conventional therapy. The study had no control group, so it cannot determine if the observed improvements were better than standard care or natural disease fluctuation.