Does the fear of falls interfere with the task of boarding a bus in individuals with Parkinson’s disease?

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) have motor impairment that leads to the fear of falling, which limits functional independence.

AIM: To correlate the fear of falling with cognitive function, handgrip strength, upper limb pulling force and functional execution time on the task of boarding a bus in individuals with PD.

METHOD: A cross-sectional study involving 31 individuals with idiopathic PD. Assessments were performed with the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Falls Efficacy Scale (FES-I). Handgrip strength and upper limb pulling force were measured using dynamometers installed on a bus prototype. Execution time was determined on the single task (ST), which consisted of climbing a bus, as well as a dual task (DT) (detecting specific letters from an audio recording during the task). Correlations between variables were determined using Pearson’s correlation test, with the significance level set at 5% (p <0.05).

RESULTS: Moderate correlations were found between the FES-I score and the following variables: MVC for right handgrip strength (r = -0.491), left handgrip strength (r = -0.522), right arm pulling force (r = -0.522) and left arm pulling force (r = -0.563) as well as execution time on the ST (r = 0.514) and DT (r = 0.445). Moreover, a weak correlation was found between the total FES-I score and MMSE (r = -0.377).

CONCLUSION: Greater concern with regards to falling was correlated with lower handgrip strength and upper limb pulling force, and a greater time spent boarding a bus under ST and DT conditions.