Perceptions of digitally supported home exercise for people with Parkinson's disease: A qualitative study.
Jenny Sedhed, Hanna Johansson, Elisabet Åkesson and 2 others
PMID 39632720WHAT IT FOUND
People with Parkinson's described digitally supported home exercise as both hopeful and burdensome: it let them actively resist disease, but unclear limits, self-doubt, home privacy, tech errors and mixed advice made adherence hard.
Key findings
01People with Parkinson's viewed home exercise as a way to actively resist the disease, which gave hope but also a burden of personal responsibility.
02Participants wanted professional feedback because they distrusted their own bodies and could not judge whether exercises were correct, beneficial, or harmful.
03Digital home exercise offered flexible timing, but it required strong self-motivation and raised concerns about family space, exposing disability, and technical usability.
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
This is a qualitative study of experiences, so it does not show whether the exercise improved symptoms, function, adherence, or quality of life. Only 14 people were interviewed, and all had completed the prior feasibility study, so views from those who dropped out or found it too hard are missing. Participants needed to walk indoors without a mobility aid, use Wi-Fi, and have no cognitive difficulties on MoCA, so findings may not apply to more impaired or cognitively affected people. The first author provided support during the intervention and later conducted the interviews, which may have shaped what participants said. No member checking was done, so participants did not review the themes.
Declared interests
No potential conflicts of interest were declared. Funding was from The Stockholm Sjukhem Foundation; The Kamprad Family Foundation; NEURO Sweden; Karolinska Institutet Research School in Health Science; Promobilia; FORTE; and Region Stockholm.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that digitally supported home exercise improves Parkinson's disease symptoms or adherence. The study reports perceptions from 14 people who had already completed a 10-week feasibility study, not measured outcomes.