Tango therapy health support program for patients with Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

BACKGROUND： Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that causes persistent postural, balance, and gait deficits and reduced quality of life despite optimal medical therapy. OBJECTIVE：We developed a health support program using tango therapy to improve the motor function and quality of life. METHODS：A total of seven patients with Parkinson’ s disease（five women and two men）were included. The tango therapy program was designed using a motor skills instructional strategy based on Gagné’s nine events of instructions. The program held one 90-minute intervention in one day. It consisted of three sessions of 30 minutes each, for a total of 90 minutes. RESULTS：In a pre-post, the results showed that in Timed Up and Go, post was faster. Also, in stride length, post was wider. The effect size in the overall Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire39 score was calculated to be large effect size （d = 0.80）. CONCLUSION：Tango therapy program in this study revealed an improvement in physical activity and quality of life. These indicate that tango therapy may be an effective health support program for patients with Parkinson’s disease.