Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Open Access

Research Article

Safety, Feasibility and Effectiveness of Balance and Gait Training Using Nintendo Wii Fit Plus^TM on Unstable Surface in Patients with Parkinson's Disease: A Pilot Study

José Eduardo Pompeu^1*, Giselle Andrade², Mariana S Mendonça², Sandra Maria AA Pompeu³ and Belinda Lange⁴

¹Professor of the Physical Therapy Course, Doctor in Neuroscience and Behavior, University of São Paulo, Paulista University, Brazil

²Physical Therapist, São Camilo University Center, Brazil

³Professor of the Physical Therapy Course, Master in Neuroscience and Behavior, University of São Paulo, Paulista University, Brazil

⁴Research Scientist, Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, USA

Corresponding Author:

José Eduardo Pompeu
Professor of the Physical Therapy Course
Doctor in Neuroscience and Behavior
University of São Paulo
Paulista University, SP, 04207-000, Brazil
Tel: +55 11 2872-2907
E-mail: j.e.pompeu@usp.br

Received date: December 20, 2013; Accepted date: January 16, 2014; Published date: January 27, 2014

Citation: Pompeu JE, Andrade G, Mendonça MS, Pompeu SMAA , Lange B (2014) Safety, Feasibility and Effectiveness of Balance and Gait Training Using Nintendo Wii Fit Plus™ on Unstable Surface in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease: A Pilot Study. J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 4:136. doi:

Copyright: © 2014 Pompeu JE, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the safety, feasibility and effectiveness of the Nintendo Wii Fit PlusTM performed over unstable surfaces, on balance and gait of four patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Methods: Patients had a mean age of 67 years (± 8.2) and diagnosed with idiopathic PD as defined by stage 2 and 3 of the Hoehn Yahr scale, without signs of cognitive impairment (Mini Mental Status Examination >23). Patients were assessed by a blinded examiner pre and post 14 training sessions. Each session was 60-minutes in length, three times a week. In all sessions of training, patients played four times each game: the first two attempts of the games were performed on stable surface and the final two attempts were performed over unstable surface, standing on the balance board placed over four mats or mini-trampoline. Results: The main outcome was safety, assessed by the number of adverse events during the intervention. The secondary outcomes were: (1) feasibility, assessed by the performance of patients in the games and (2) the effectiveness, assessed by the Balance Evaluation Systems Test (BESTest). No adverse events were reported. Patients improved their scores on games over the 14 sessions. After the intervention, patients demonstrated improvement of 9.19% (8.12%) on BESTest score. Conclusions: Motor training using the Wii Fit PlusTM performed over an unstable surface was safe, feasible and promoted improvement on static and dynamic balance of people with PD.

Keywords