Pohl 2003.
| Methods | Randomised cross‐over trial Method of randomisation: sealed opaque envelopes | |
| Participants | Country: Germany
Sample size: 17 participants
Inclusion criteria: early PD, defined as Hoehn and Yahr stages I through III; subjective disturbances in gait; stable drug program, and in stable cardiovascular condition Exclusion criteria: paroxysmal motor fluctuations, such as on‐off and wearing‐off phenomena, class B, C, or D exercise risk by the ACSM criteria; cognitive deficits (defined as scores of less than 26 on the MMSE; moderate or severe depression (defined as scores of greater than 17 on the Beck Depression Inventory); and orthopedic and other gait‐influencing diseases such as arthrosis or total hip joint replacement |
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| Interventions | 4 arms
(1) treadmill training group with incremental speed increase: 1 session treadmill training, 30 minutes (2) treadmill training group without increases of gait speed: 1 session treadmill training, 30 minutes (3) physiotherapy group: 1 session physiotherapy including gait training, 30 minutes (4) control group: resting in a chair for 30 minutes |
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| Outcomes | Outcomes were recorded at baseline, after 1 session of 30 minutes and included
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| Notes | Raw data of the authors used for all analyses, data of treadmill groups were collapsed in to one group (n=8) and data of physiotherapy and control group were also collapsed into one group (n=9) | |
| Risk of bias | ||
| Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Low risk | computer generated list |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Low risk | Sealed opaque envelopes were used for allocation procedure. They contained one of four sequences: 'A', 'B', 'C' and 'D' An assistant blinded to group assignment and not involved in patient recruitment allocated all participants by opening one sealed envelope. |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes | Low risk | blinded assessor for gait speed and steps |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Low risk | no missing outcome data |