Turo (Qi Dance) Program for Parkinson's Disease Patients: Randomized, Assessor Blind, Waiting-List Control, Partial Crossover Study

Abstract

Context: Qigong, Tai-chi and dancing have all been proven effective for Parkinson's disease (PD); however, no study has yet assessed the efficacy of Turo, a hybrid qigong dancing program developed to relieve symptoms in PD patients.

Objective: To determine whether Turo may provide benefit in addressing the symptoms of PD patients.

Design: Randomized, assessor blind, waiting-list control, partial crossover study.

Setting: Kyung Hee University Korean Medicine Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Participants: A total of 32 PD patients (mean age 65.7 ± 6.8).

Intervention: Participants were assigned to the Turo group or the waiting-list control group. The Turo group participated in an 8-week Turo training program (60-minute sessions twice a week). The waiting-list control group received no additional treatment during the same period; then underwent the same 8-week Turo training.

Outcome measures: The primary outcome was a score on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), and the secondary outcomes included the perceived health status assessed using the Parkinson's disease Quality of Life questionnaire (PDQL), balance function as assessed by the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and the results of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).

Results: The Turo group showed statistically significant improvements in the UPDRS (P < 0.01) and PDQL (P < 0.05) as compared to the control group. The changes in BBS scores displayed a tendency toward improvement, but was not statistically significant (P = 0.051).

Conclusion: These findings suggest that Turo PD training might improve the symptoms of PD patients.

Keywords: Complementary and alternative medicine; Parkinson’s disease; Qigong; Turo; UPDRS.