The effects of attentional focus instructions on learning of balance task amongst Parkinson disease patients

Introduction: Studies with adults have shown that an external focus of attention results in more learning and greater automaticity than an internal focus. Hence, this study was conducted to evaluate the effects of attentional focus instructions on learning of balance skill amongst patients with Parkinson disease. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, all Parkinson's disease patients referred to neurology clinic were examined by a neurologist and 23 patients who met the inclusion criteria of this study were evaluated using Berg balance scale. They were randomly assigned to control, external, and internal groups. The participants of each group practiced Berg balance scale for five days and then conducted the retention test, 72 hours after the last session. To compare the results of 4 stages of practice, analysis of variance for repeated data was used and P<0.05 was considered statistical significant. Results: Using Berg balance scale revealed that the participants' balance improved in all control, internal and external groups regarding performance and retention. The comparison between the groups also showed that although the external group performed better than the other two groups, there was no significant difference between them regarding performance and retention. Conclusion: The results of this study confirmed the effect of practice on improvement of balance skill amongst patients with Parkinson's disease. However, external and internal attentional focus instructions had no advantage over one another. Therefore, it seems that attentional focus instructions do not probably act similarly in all types of skills and educational environments