PHYSICAL TRAINING
Our study covered a period of 19 weeks, the first 2 and the last 2 being reserved for the cognitive and motor-oriented assessments. During 15 weeks, the IG patients went through three 1- hour sessions per week. During the first 2 weeks, the participants were prepared for physical activity through exercises involving articular mobilization and muscle stimulation. Evaluation of individual aptitudes constituted the initial step of orienting content programming by defining an individual motor profile. Next, during 13 weeks, we elaborated a programme based upon exercises in walking, equilibrium and stamina. Three themes were taken up in each session in accordance with our objectives, and they occa- sioned 40 min of exercises per session. Each week, one session was given over to walking and the amelioration of walking parameters through motor route exercises (e.g. walking by striding over boards, going up a step, zigzagging). After that, a second weekly session was devoted to stamina exercises, particularly on an ergocycle with the arms and the legs. Participants could thereby keep up a light to moderate effort over a relatively long time span. During this effort, the patients were equipped with a Beurer P-100® cardiofrequency meter glove. While unable to carry out an effort test, we nonetheless managed to determine the targeted cardiac frequencies encompassed between 60 and 70% of reserve cardiac frequency.
Finally, the last session of the week involved activities (e.g. dance and stepping) that combined stamina, equilibrium and walking. This session was supposed to be enjoyable, as its objective was to maintain the motivation of one and all throughout the duration of the programme. The hour was divided into three parts: the first part consisting of 10 min of contact, articular mobilization and warm-up, the second part was 40 min of the previously described activities and then 10 min of return to calm and relaxation.
The follow-up necessitated preliminary programming of each session and allowed for activity content to evolve in accordance with each person’s progress.
STATISTICS
The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (K-S test) was used to test distribution normality for each parameter. The initial subject characteristics in the two groups were compared using the Student’s t test for quantitative variables and using a McNemar X2 with a Yates correcting for qualitative variables.
Each participant was assessed before and after the rehabilitation, and comparisons between were made with a repeated measures ANOVA. A Spearman correlation test was used to study the relationship between the changes in cognitive score ( Δ values) and the changes in walking variables ( Δ values).
These analyses were made with Statistica 8, and the significance threshold was set at p < 0.01.