Exercise, supervised or not, effects on life quality of patients with Parkinson's disease.

Experimental longitudinal study. Objective: Comparison of the life quality related to health (LQRH) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) who attended a supervised program in the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Unit of the Hospital Universitario de los Andes with Those that had exercise without supervision through the use of a pamphlet and those who did not practice any type of exercise. Twenty eight patients with PD were studied, 12 who practiced supervised exercises (Group A), 8 that had exercise with pamphlet (group B), and 5 that had not exercise (Group C); 19 masculine (73.1%), 7 feminine (26.9%). Age 64.9 +/- 7.9 years old. Hoehn and Yahr Unified Scale, Scale of daily life activities of Schwab and England and the questionnaire of life quality (PDQ39) were evaluated. There was 50% improvement in group A and 60% in group B, in the first month, this improvement remained after the study finished. The LQRH worsened 22.7% in patients without exercise. Conclusion: The exercise is useful in any of the PD stages, especially 1, 2, 3 stages in which functional independence is preserved. The improvement remains as far as the exercises are continued. Although a permanent direction is not necessary, is advisable initial supervision to teach and establish exercise aims.