Self reported adherence to a home-based exercise programme among people with Parkinson's disease

There is an extensive literature addressing compliance with medication, techniques to measure, and ways to improve it. In comparison the literature concerning adherence to exercise programmes agreed with a physiotherapist is limited.

We estimate the percentage of exercise repetitions completed of those agreed with a physiotherapist in the context of a six week personalized exercise programme to reduce falling in people with Parkinson's disease, and examine patient characteristics that predict adherence.

Secondary analysis of data collected during a randomized controlled trial. Participants allocated to receive the exercise programme self-reported the number of repetitions of prescribed strengthening, range of movement and balance exercises they had completed in daily dairies. Indoor or outdoor walking was also prescribed but in terms of target distances or lengths of time, and was not included in our analysis.

On average the 70 participants allocated to the exercise programme reported completing 79% (95% confidence interval 73%-86%) of the prescribed number of repetitions of their exercises. The percentage of exercises completed varied depending on the specific exercise prescribed, and on participant characteristics: those who were older, in poorer health and with anxiety, depression, or mental heath problems reported lower adherence to exercise.

Several of the factors we found to reduce adherence to exercise have been shown by others to reduce compliance with antiparkinsonian medication, but we found adherence decreased with age in contrast to the pattern of better compliance with medication amongst older people with Parkinson's disease reported previously.