The need for mapping personal goals to exercise dosage in community-based exercise programs for people with Parkinson's disease.

: Community-based exercise can support long-term management of Parkinson's disease, although it is not known if personal goals are met in these programs. The objectives of this study were to: (1) examine the goals of community based exercise programs from the participant and instructor perspectives; (2) establish the extent to which these programs meet self-described exercise outcomes; and (3) explore participant and instructor perspectives on barriers to meeting exercise expectations. : This study explores the experiences of people with Parkinson's disease participating in a structured exercise program at six community sites.

Barriers to physical activity between adults with stroke and their care partners.

Background And Purpose: Healthy living includes meeting daily physical activity guidelines. This study compares daily physical activity rates and barriers to physical activity for people with stroke and their partners (spouse or significant other).

Methods: Physical abilities, energy expenditure, daily steps, and barriers to physical activity are evaluated in people who have completed stroke rehabilitation and their partners.

Measures of physical ability are unrelated to objectively measured physical activity behavior in older adults residing in continuing care retirement communities.

Objective: To explore the relationship between measures of physical performance, physical activity, and self-reported physical activity.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis.

Setting: Continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) in the greater Milwaukee area.

Testing functional performance in people with Parkinson disease.

Background And Purpose: Although the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) is the most common performance measure for people with Parkinson disease (PD), the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Forward Functional Reach Test (FFR), Backward Functional Reach Test (BFR), Timed "Up & Go" Test (TUG), and gait speed may be used to quantify some aspects of functional performance not measured by the UPDRS. The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship among a set of tests of balance, walking performance, and mobility in people with PD.

Subjects: Twenty-five community-dwelling adults (11 female, 14 male) with a diagnosis of PD were recruited from PD support groups in southeastern Wisconsin and consented to participate in the study.