OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to examine the Parkinson disease specific symptoms between regular exercising and non-exercising patients.

METHODS: The study was conducted in 2015 with the MDS-UPDRS scale on 20 people (11 female and 9 male), suffering from Parkinson disease. Data were collected from a Parkinson’s Patients Association in city of Pécs (Hungary). According to socio-demographic data, the average age was 69 years. Parkinson's disease has been diagnosed on average for 10 years among the examined people. The data were analysed by descriptive statistics (mean calculation, standard deviation) and we used the Mann Whitney and Fisher exact test.

RESULTS: For regular exercise patients the scores are significantly lower (p<0.001). Based on the aggregated results the motor symptoms are indeed not as severe among the patients who regulary do exercises (p<0.001). Those patients who regulary do exercise (postural instability=45%; walking problems=40%) have postural instability and walking problems at lower percentage than those who do not do regular exercises (postural instability=45%; walking problems=35%)(p=0.001, p=0.033). We found no significant connection in the number of freezing, fatigue, type of exercise, depression among patients who regulary do exercises and who do not do regular exercise.

CONCLUSIONS: We have concluded that the participants of this study who do regular exercises are in better general condition than those who do not do regular exercises. We could improve the general conditon of the patients who do not do regular exercises with exercise therapy.