Climb up! Head up! Climbing improves posture in Parkinson's disease. A secondary analysis from a randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the effect of sport climbing on a biomechanical marker of axial posture in patients with Parkinson's disease, as well as its association with age, body mass index and health-related quality-of-life outcome measures.

DESIGN

Pre-planned secondary analysis of our randomized controlled, semi-blind trial (unblinded patients, blinded assessors) comparing sport climbing to unsupervised exercise.

SETTING

Single-centre study conducted at the Department of Neurology of the Medical University of Vienna, Austria.

PARTICIPANTS

Forty-eight Parkinson's disease patients (aged 64 ± 8 years, Hoehn & Yahr stage 2-3) were included.

INTERVENTION

Sport climbers (n = 24) followed a 12-week, 90 min/week supervised top-rope sport climbing course in an indoor climbing gym. The unsupervised training group (n = 24) independently followed the 'European Physiotherapy Guidelines for Parkinson's Disease' and World Health Organization recommendations for an active lifestyle for 12 weeks.

MAIN MEASURES

Posture was assessed with the horizontal distance of the seventh cervical vertebra to the wall at baseline and after the intervention.

RESULTS

Participating in the sport climbing group significantly predicted the biomechanical marker of axial posture (P = 0.044). The improvement in the biomechanical marker did not affect the quality of life, depression, fatigue, physical activity or fear of falling. Participants in the sport climbing group showed a significantly decreased horizontal distance of the seventh cervical vertebra to the wall after the intervention (-1.7 cm (95%CI [-2.6, -0.8]). In the unsupervised training group, no difference was found (-0.5 cm; 95%CI -1.3, 0.2]).

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that sport climbing improves a biomechanical marker of axial posture in Parkinson's disease.