An 8-week aerobic cycling intervention elicits improved gait velocity and biomechanics in persons with Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND: It is unknown if improvements in gait velocity following an aerobic cycling intervention are accompanied by improved gait biomechanics in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) or if gait abnormalities are exaggerated in response to increased velocity. Research question Can an 8-week aerobic cycling intervention elicit improvements in locomotor function in individuals with mild to moderate PD? METHODS: A secondary analysis of data from a randomized clinical trial was conducted in individuals with mild to moderate idiopathic PD (N = 28). Participants were randomized to an aerobic cycling intervention (PDex, N = 14) consisting of 24 sessions at a targeted aerobic intensity of 60-80% of heart rate reserve or to a no intervention control group (PDcontrol, N = 14). Change in comfortable walking speed in addition to gait kinematics, kinetics, and spatiotemporal variables using motion capture were obtained at baseline and end of treatment (EOT). RESULTS: The PDex group made significantly greater improvements in the primary outcome, change in comfortable gait velocity, from 0.86 ± 0.24 m/s at baseline to 1.00 ± 0.23 m/s at EOT compared to the PDcontrol group who declined from 0.91 ± 0.23 m/s at baseline to 0.80 ± 0.29 at EOT (P = 0.002). Improvements in gait velocity for the PDex group were accompanied by improvements in gait kinematics, kinetics, and spatiotemporal parameters, while the PDcontrol group demonstrated slight worsening in all gait parameters over the 8-week period. Significance The 8-week moderate- to high-intensity cycling intervention elicited significantly greater improvements in gait velocity compared to the PDcontrol group. Increased gait velocity was accompanied by normalization of gait biomechanics, rather than an exaggeration of existing gait deviations. Aerobic cycling may be a viable treatment approach to improve gait velocity and gait biomechanics in individuals with mild to moderate PD and may mitigate declines in mobility.