Analysis of Balance and Mobility for Parkinson Disease After Whole Body Vibration

Parkinson's disease has innumerous motor symptoms that impacting on the functional level of the patient, such as impairment in functional mobility and balance . Previous studies have already aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of whole body vibration, but without methodological criteria. The use of whole body vibration may be an alternative for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Therefore, the objective of the study is to verify which frequency of vibration is able to improve the balance and mobility of patients with Parkinson's disease.

After confirming the eligibility criteria, patients will be asked to sign the informed consent form. Subsequently, they will be randomly allocated to three groups: (i) group 6 Hz: full body vibration (frequency 6 Hz, amplitude 4 mm, five cycles lasting 1 minutes and interval between cycles of 1 minute) , (ii) 25 Hz group: full body vibration (25 Hz frequency, 4 mm amplitude, five cycles lasting 1 minute and interval between 1 minute cycles) and (iii) sham group: The sham vibration will be performed with the platform disconnected. Additionally, a sound device will be connected producing a noise similar to that of the connected platform for a time equivalent to that of the treatment protocol. The patient will be instructed to position himself standing on the platform, with a semi knee flexion in order that the vibration wave does not propagate to the head. The allocation will be made randomly among individuals, using a random sequence table generated by the website www.randomization.com. There will be a washout time of at least one week between one intervention and another. All evaluations took place inside the laboratory, which has all the equipment for the evaluation. The evaluations will take place immediately before the intervention and immediately after.