Physical activity in people living with Parkinson's during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

It is not known whether people living with Parkinson’s (PlwP) were actually achieving the recommended level of physical activity before and during the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK. This study aimed to find out: 1) whether PlwP are aware of the UK Chief Medical Officer’s physical activity recommendations for older adults, and if PlwP were following these recommendations before and subsequently during the COVID-19 pandemic; 2) what modes of exercise were used by PlwP to keep exercising during the COVID-19 restrictions; and 3) the preferences of PlwP in terms of self-managed exercise programmes to inform the design of future intervention studies. An online questionnaire was developed by the research team, focusing on physical activity level and mode before the quarantine, during the pandemic, and on their preference in terms of future self-management mode of exercise. Adults who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and were receiving emails from Parkinson’s UK Research Support Network were eligible to participate. Any person unable to read English was excluded. There were 416 responders to the questionnaire. There was a decrease in physical activity in PlwP during the pandemic. People mostly missed the social contact in exercise groups. Online virtual exercise classes, stationary cycling, treadmill running, and DVD exercises were the preferred modes of remote/indoor exercise methods. These findings indicate the importance of designing remote or minimally supervised exercise trial interventions, taking into consideration people’s preferences regarding mode of exercise and social contact.