Climb up! Head up! Climbing improves posture in Parkinson's disease. A secondary analysis from a randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of sport climbing on a biomechanical marker of axial posture in patients with Parkinson's disease, as well as its association with age, body mass index and health-related quality-of-life outcome measures. DESIGN: Pre-planned secondary analysis of our randomized controlled, semi-blind trial (unblinded patients, blinded assessors) comparing sport climbing to unsupervised exercise. SETTING: Single-centre study conducted at the Department of Neurology of the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-eight Parkinson's disease patients (aged 64 ± 8 years, Hoehn & Yahr stage 2–3) were included. INTERVENTION: Sport climbers (n = 24) followed a 12-week, 90 min/week supervised top-rope sport climbing course in an indoor climbing gym. The unsupervised training group (n = 24) independently followed the ‘European Physiotherapy Guidelines for Parkinson's Disease’ and World Health Organization recommendations for an active lifestyle for 12 weeks. MAIN MEASURES: Posture was assessed with the horizontal distance of the seventh cervical vertebra to the wall at baseline and after the intervention. RESULTS: Participating in the sport climbing group significantly predicted the biomechanical marker of axial posture (P = 0.044). The improvement in the biomechanical marker did not affect the quality of life, depression, fatigue, physical activity or fear of falling. Participants in the sport climbing group showed a significantly decreased horizontal distance of the seventh cervical vertebra to the wall after the intervention (−1.7 cm (95%CI [−2.6, −0.8]). In the unsupervised training group, no difference was found (−0.5 cm; 95%CI −1.3, 0.2]). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that sport climbing improves a biomechanical marker of axial posture in Parkinson's disease.