Short-term Effect of Elastic Taping on Balance and Postural Control in Patients with Early-stage Parkinson’s Disease -a Non-controlled, Quasi-experimental Study

Abstract

Objective:Normal postural control and balance is achieved by the integration of visual, proprioceptive and vestibular sensory information. The patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), on the other hand, experience postural control disorders due to the lack of integration of these senses. Elastic taping is effective in improving expected postural adjustments by increasing proprioception and trunk muscle activation. The aim of this study was to investigate the short term effect of single session elastic taping on balance and postural control in patients with early-stage PD.Methods:Elastic tape was applied with posture correction techniques on the upper back of 23 patients with early-stage PD (18 men, 5 women) during “on” phase. The postural control and balance ability of patients was assessed with the limits of stability (LOS), Sit-to Stand, Walk Across and Tandem Walking Tests of NeuroCom Balance Master test device. The tests were repeated after elastic taping in all patients.Results:The maximum excursions and endpoint scores of LOS test, the speed of tandem walking test significantly increased after taping (Wilcoxon test, respectively; p=0.04, p=0.02, p0.05).Conclusion:Our study is the first to investigate the short-term effects of elastic taping on balance and postural control in PD. It was concluded that the application of elastic tape in patients with PD could enhance dynamic balance and postural control parameters for a short time under challenging and complex conditions.

Keywords

• parkinson’s disease
• tape
• balance
• postural control
• short-term