A Systematic Review on Physical Health Education Interventions for People with Parkinson’s Disease: Content, Impact, and Implementation Considerations Across the Parkinson’s Trajectory

BACKGROUND: Educational interventions promoting the role of physical activity (PA) aim to address knowledge, poor exercise self-efficacy, and low outcome expectations, which are well-researched barriers to PA participation in healthy and in people with chronic conditions. However, little is known about the effectiveness of educational interventions in addressing these barriers in people with Parkinson's (PwP). OBJECTIVE: To examine the content of education interventions that promote PA behavior in PwP, and to assess their effectiveness on physical and psychosocial outcomes. METHODS: An electronic search (12/2021) of MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PubMed PsycINFO, the Web of Science and the Cochrane Library was conducted from 1990 to 2021. Education interventions, alone or combined with other strategies, promoting PA in PwP were included. Quality was assessed using the Johanna Briggs Institute and National Institute of Health quality assessment tools. A narrative synthesis was performed. RESULTS: Six studies were identified. Five interventions were comprised of education and exercise sessions. Improvement in physical and psychosocial outcomes were suggested but delineating the exact impact of education was impeded due to lack of assessment. CONCLUSION: Few interventions exist that provide knowledge, and skills promoting PA participation, and fewer are addressed towards newly diagnosed PwP. There is lack of assessment over the effectiveness of education as a tool to facilitate PA participation in PwP. Lack of assessment poses the risk of potentially disregarding effective interventions or adopting ineffective approaches without the evidence. Education interventions can boost PA engagement by increasing factors such as exercise self-efficacy, but further interventions are required to assess this model of relationship.