The Effect of Whole Body Vibration in Individuals With Parkinson's Disease

Previous studies reported that whole body vibration has the potential impact on balance and walking abilities in individuals with Parkinson's disease; however, the inconsistent treatment protocols and different experimental designs lead to inconclusive results. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the short term and long term effect of whole body vibration on sensorimotor function in individuals with Parkinson's disease. The experimental design will be randomized double-blinded controlled trial. Sixty individuals with idiopathic Parkinson's disease will be randomly assigned to two groups and they are non-random whole body vibration group and conventional therapy group. Each participant will receive the treatment about one hour after the administration of medicine. For non-random whole body vibration group, participants will be required to maintain the erect standing position on the vibratory platform and the frequency and amplitude of vibratory stimuli will be 6Hz and 3mm respectively. Each treatment includes five sessions and each session is composed of one minute whole body vibration and one minute rest. For the conventional therapy group, participants will receive the occupational therapy including dynamic balance training and functional ambulatory training. Each session is 10 minutes in both groups and all participants will receive one and twelve treatment sessions for short-term and long-term effect respectively. Outcome measures include proprioceptive sensitivity threshold of upper limb, position sense test of the knee joint, Unified Parkinson's disease rating scale-motor (UPDRS motor), functional reach, and time up and go test (TUG). Specifically, the investigators want to answer the following four questions: 1) Is there any difference in proprioceptive sensitivity, motor performance and balance before and after treatment in individuals with Parkinson's disease? 2) Is there any difference in short-term and long term effect of whole body vibration in individuals with Parkinson's disease? 3) Is there any difference in treatment effect in individuals with Parkinson's disease in Taiwan?