Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Summer Chapman and I am an IMS: Clinical Professions major in my junior year. I am interested in psychological and neurological research. Currently, I am on pre-medical track with a planned gap year.

Cueing and Gait Improvement Among People With Parkinson’s Disease - A Meta Analysis

Abstract

Background: Parkinson’s Disease is a neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by a loss
of movement and coordination due to an impairment of the dopaminergic nerve cells in the
substantia nigra of the basal ganglia, causing a failure to produce dopamine. Though there is no
current cure for Parkinson’s Disease, treatments using cueing to improve gait are being studied
for possible improvement of symptoms. Gait is defined as a patient’s walking patterns. Cueing is
the use of a stimulus to regulate a patient’s movement.
Methods: The aim of this project is to conduct a meta-analysis using available evidence to
examine the effects of auditory, visual, and combined auditory and visual treatments on the gait
of Parkinson’s patients. Specifically, this meta-analysis defines gait as patterns of cadence, stride
length, and velocity. A literature search was conducted using Embase, Web of Science, Medline,
CINAHL, and PubMed. Studies consisted of the application of a visual, auditory, or audiovisual
intervention treatment on patients with Parkinson’s disease, measuring changes in cadence,
velocity and stride length.
Results: The present dataset comprises 28 effect sizes from 12 studies, involving a total of 236
participants with Parkinson’s Disease. The overall findings indicate a statistically significant
difference (p = 0.05) across various aspects. As indicated by Hedge’s G, cadence (0.26), velocity
(0.26), and stride length (0.43), a small to medium effect size is observed.

Keywords: Parkinson's, Neurological, Gait