Moderate Versus High Volume Light-Moderate Intensity Exercise for People With Moderate Parkinson's Disease

Summary

Veterans with mid to later stage Parkinson's disease (PD) may not be able to work out as hard as they need to, to prevent brain cell loss. Maybe they could work out longer and more frequently to make up for this during their good times and good weeks and then rest during the bad weeks. The investigators will compare how effective working out a lot one week per month with a break of three weeks is to continuously exercising weekly with no breaks in people with mid stage PD. The investigators will look at how fast participants walk per minute, whether they become more physically active, the biochemicals in their blood, and at how stiff their blood vessels are before and after the exercise.

Conditions

• Parkinson Disease
• Movement Disorders
• Neurodegeneration

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

HV-PDAE: High Volume Partnered Dance Aerobic Exercise

HV-PDAE classes will meet 5 times a week for 90 minute sessions for 3 weeks at onset of trial and then every 4 weeks for a year. All participants will receive 112.5h of training. PDAE was adapted for older adults with balance impairments; modifications were made to the frame and steps of Argentine tango. People with PD partner an individual without PD, e.g., staff, caregiver, friend, or university student. The instructor, staff lead and assistants monitor participants for safety. Class sizes will consist of 6 or fewer pairs of participants with PD and partners. Participants with PD will dance with new partners (individuals without PD) every 15-20 minutes. Participants will learn new steps in each class. The class format includes practicing steps, warm-up, partnering and rhythmic exercises, learning new steps, combining old and new steps, cool down. PDAE classes follow a syllabus with new steps, rhythms and embellishments included in each class.

BEHAVIORAL

MV-PDAE: Moderate Volume Partnered Dance Aerobic Exercise

MV-PDAE: MV classes will meet biweekly for 52 weeks for 65-minute sessions. All participants will receive 112.5h of training. . PDAE was adapted for older adults with balance impairments; modifications were made to the frame and steps of Argentine tango. People with PD partner an individual without PD, e.g., staff, caregiver, friend, or university student. The instructor, staff lead and assistants monitor participants for safety. Class sizes will consist of 6 or fewer pairs of participants with PD and partners. Participants with PD will dance with new partners (individuals without PD) every 15-20 minutes. Participants will learn new steps in each class. The class format includes practicing steps, warm-up, partnering and rhythmic exercises, learning new steps, combining old and new steps, cool down. PDAE classes follow a syllabus with new steps, rhythms and embellishments included in each class.

BEHAVIORAL

MV-WALK: Moderate Volume Walking

MV-WALK (65-minute sessions): WALK will control for the walking that participants in PDAE do and will also take place in groups to control social effects of intervention. Walking for

Sponsors & Collaborators

• VA Office of Research and Development

  lead FED

Principal Investigators

• Madeleine E. Hackney, PhD · Atlanta VA Medical and Rehab Center, Decatur, GA

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

40 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-01-25

Primary Completion

2028-01-29

Completion

2029-06-02

Countries

• United States

Study Locations