Fine motor skills in patients with Parkinsons disease: effect of auditory cueing

Abstract

Background and purpose - Parkinson’s disease with cardinal feature of bradykinesia is a movement disorder. The effect of cueing in disorders like parkinsons patients ,stroke, spinal cord injury for improving motor skills and gait and lower limb functions have long been investigated by the Researchers, but there are dearth of studies evaluating the effect of cueing on fine motor skills in patients with parkinson’s disease. Hence this study tries to investigate the effect of auditory cueing on fine motor skills in Parkinson’s disease. Methodology - 25 diagnosed Parkinson’s patients having primary level of education, with mean age 72±5 yrs in Hoehn and Yahr stages 1 to 3 of disease and MMSE score above 24 were included in the study. Two groups were formed; one group performing activities with auditory cueing and other group performing activities without auditory cueing. Scores were calculated using Jebsen Taylor Hand Function Test. Results - Mean values of pre and post intervention timings on Jebsen Taylor Hand Function Test were calculated. Group with auditory cueing showed improvement in total sores of subtests of Jebsen Taylor Hand Function Test with mean and standard deviation (58.51±2.69) seconds in dominant hand and (54.59±2.43) seconds in non-dominant hand, whereas, Group without auditory cueing showed improvement in total sores of subtests of Jebsen Taylor Hand Function Test with mean and standard deviation of (13.39±2.07) seconds in dominant hand and (13.52±1.96) seconds in non-dominant hand. Conclusion- Auditory cueing is proved to be an effective method in improving fine motor skills in patients with Parkinsons disease.