Barriers to home exercise for patients with Parkinson's disease: a qualitative study

This study aimed to explore the barriers to home exercise for patients with Parkinson's disease (PwPDs) and to provide guidelines for healthcare providers to build and implement home exercise strategies for PwPDs.

A qualitative descriptive method was used. Semistructured interviews were conducted and thematic analysis was employed.

The study was conducted at the Department of Neurology at a grade 3 Class A general hospital in China.

A total of 24 participants were interviewed, including 10 PwPDs, 7 caregivers, 4 nurses, 1head nurse, and 2 Parkinson's clinicians.

Five themes were identified in this analysis. (1) Psychosomatic stress and low activity; (2) Lack of early rehabilitation authorisation; (3) Poor 'flow' state of home exercise; (4) iInaccessibility of continued service; (5) Sociocultural impact on family coping.

PwPDs, caregivers and specialised medical staff raised the challenges faced by patients' home exercises from different perspectives. We can improve services and integrate resources through the management of multi-disciplinary, early rehabilitation authorisation, exercise experience, continuous service mode, and family coping strategies under different cultures to gradually adjust the home exercise behaviour of PwPDs.