Impact of Weighted Gloves on Tremor-related Activities of Daily Living in People with Parkinson’s Disease Assessed Using the Essential Tremor Rating Assessment Scale: A Quasi-experimental Study
Impact of Weighted Gloves on Tremor-related Activities of Daily Living in People with Parkinson’s Disease Assessed Using the Essential Tremor Rating Assessment Scale: A Quasi-experimental Study
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Original abstract
Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) results in tremor, which is a debilitating motor symptom that greatly impedes fine motor control and activities of daily living (ADL). Although weak data exists, weighted gloves have been recommended as a biomechanical intervention to reduce the functional impairments caused by tremor. Hence, the present study aims to determine the effect of weighted gloves on tremor-related ADL performance of individuals with Parkinson disease by use of the Essential Tremor Rating Assessment Scale (TETRAS) ADL sub-scale. Methods: A single-group pretest–posttest quasi-experimental study was conducted on 15 individuals with PD (Hoehn and Yahr stages 1–3). Participants underwent a 2-week period of upper limb rehabilitation (45–60 min per session, 6 days a week) performed while wearing weighted gloves. Tremor-related functional performance in ADL was assessed before and after the intervention using the ADL subscale of the TETRAS. Paired t -test was used to analyze the data and the significance level was set to P < 0.05. Cohen’s d was used to find effect size. Results: TETRAS ADL scores showed a significant improvement following the intervention, decreasing from 21.53 ± 7.34-17.87 ± 7.92 (t (14) = 7.276, P < 0.001). The effect size was large (Cohen’s d = 1.879), indicating a substantial functional improvement. Conclusion: Weighted gloves combined with upper limb training may significantly improve tremor-related ADL performance in people with PD. Further controlled studies with larger samples are required to confirm these findings.