The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for everyone, especially those in high-risk populations. Due to state-wide stay-at-home mandates, it was especially difficult for individuals with Parkinson’s Disease. Although the COVID-19 stay-at-home mandate was intended to help protect individuals at high-risk from coming into contact with the virus, it also prevented individuals with PD from receiving recommended structured and supervised exercise interventions. The presented work was completed to aid in understanding the consequences of these stay-at-home mandates. As a result of a 4-month restriction from these structured intervention programs, significant negative effects of individuals' social well-being and across functional abilities of motor and speech function occurred. 82.14% of individuals self-reported having at least one symptom that worsened moderately or severely during the time of the stay-at-home mandates. Tablet-based testing showed average completion times of functional tasks increased by a factor of 2.1x, while accuracy metrics showed overall degradation. As scientific and technological advances are made, in addition to the possibility of future global pandemics, a strong focus should be placed on maintaining recommended and beneficial programs for these at-risk populations.
Link: Negative Effects of COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Mandates on Physical Intervention Outcomes