People with Parkinson’s disease who were more physically active had a slower decline in their thinking over up to seven years, according to a study in the journal Neurology. It is a useful finding, and an easy one to over-read.
The study shows an association. It does not show that exercise caused the slower decline.
What the study found
The American Academy of Neurology published the research on 7 October. The author named in the release is Dong-Woo Ryu, of the University of Cincinnati. It followed 294 people with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease, with an average age of 66, for up to seven years.
Participants reported how many hours a week they were active at work, at home and in their leisure time. The researchers then sorted them into three groups by total weekly activity: low, up to four hours; medium, four to eight hours; and high, more than eight hours.
The numbers
On a 30-point thinking and memory scale, the estimated average yearly decline was:
| Activity group | Weekly activity | Yearly decline in thinking score |
|---|---|---|
| Low | up to 4 hours | 0.478 points |
| Medium | 4 to 8 hours | 0.090 points |
| High | more than 8 hours | 0.007 points |
The researchers adjusted for age, sex and how long people had had the disease. Compared with the low group, the high group had a slower decline in thinking and slower worsening of movement symptoms.
The release also gives yearly changes on a 0 to 132 movement scale, but describes some of them as decreases on a scale where a higher score means worse symptoms. We could not reconcile that wording without the paper, so we do not repeat those figures here.
Why the result needs caution
The release lists the limits itself. Activity was self-reported, so some people may not have remembered it accurately. Most people started with good thinking skills, so the results should be read with care. And the differences between groups were small.
There is also the question of which way the link runs. People who feel better may simply move more. An observational study like this one cannot separate the two.
What it means
Our reading: it adds to evidence that staying active is associated with doing better with Parkinson’s, and it gives a range of weekly hours to think about. It is not a prescription, and it does not say how much exercise any one person should do. Anyone with Parkinson’s should talk to their care team before changing their routine.
The work was funded by the Gardner Family Foundation and the Precision Medicine in Neurodegenerative Diseases Fund.
For other recent neurology stories, see brain implants giving people who lost their speech a voice again and Utah’s bionic arm that can feel.
What we could not confirm
We did not open the paper in Neurology or find its DOI, so the figures come from the academy’s release. We could not check the movement results. We have not found other researchers’ reactions.
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