Understanding personal preferences to promote exercise adherence in Parkinson's disease

Caro I Cools; Sonja A Kotz; Bastiaan R Bloem; Nienke M de Vries; Annelien A Duits

doi:10.1016/j.prdoa.2025.100336

Understanding personal preferences to promote exercise adherence in Parkinson's disease

Clin Park Relat Disord. 2025 Apr 28:12:100336. doi: 10.1016/j.prdoa.2025.100336. eCollection 2025.

Authors

Caro I Cools¹, Sonja A Kotz¹, Bastiaan R Bloem², Nienke M de Vries^{2

3}, Annelien A Duits^{4

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Neuropsychology & Psychopharmacology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
² Radboud University Medical Centre; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Department of Neurology, Centre of Expertise for Parkinson and Movement Disorders, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
³ Department of Human Movement Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Medical Psychology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
⁶ Department of Medical Psychology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Abstract

Introduction: Exercise is a recognized treatment for people with Parkinson's Disease (PwP), but personal exercise preferences are rarely considered in exercise intervention studies. Yet these are critical for understanding motivation and to ascertain long-term exercise adherence in PwP. This study compared preferred exercise types among PwP with exercise types investigated in prior research.

Method: 672 PwP participated in an online survey, answering questions about currently practiced and preferred exercise types. Besides, a brief review was performed, evaluating exercise types deployed in prior studies. The preferred exercise types of PwP were subsequently compared to exercise types used in prior research.

Results: PwP mainly preferred the same exercises that they were currently practicing. These preferences did not necessarily align with exercise types reported in prior studies. The top 5 highly preferred sport categories but relatively little studied were walking, biking, swimming, boxing, and tennis.

Conclusion: Future intervention studies may benefit from considering personal preferences to both strengthen and understand exercise adherence.