“Exercise and Parkinson”: The Park-in-Shape study

1) Idiopathic Parkinson’s disease, according to the UK Brain Bank criteria, diagnosed by a neurologist

2) H&Y stage ≤2

3) Age 30-75 years

4) Sedentary lifestyle (insufficient aerobic physical activity, as defined by the current American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommendations for older adults23).

5) Both medicated and unmedicated patients are eligible, if they:

 Receive a stable dopaminergic medication dose (both levo-dopa and/or a dopamine agonist are allowed) for one month before the study

 Are umedicated and deemed unlikely to start treatment within the next month by their treating neurologist

1) Use of beta-blockers

2) Use of anti-psychotics

3) Inability to cycle or perform stretching exercises due to (other) neurologic or orthopedic co-morbidities

4) Inability to fill out questionnaires or perform a computer task (i.e due to poor vision, inability to read Dutch (illiteracy or foreign language)

5) Psychiatric diseases, including major depressive disorder, severe or moderate depressive episode or any form of psychosis, diagnosed by a psychiatrist in the last year.

6) No internet at home

7) MMSE <24

8) Contra-indications for aerobic exercise including diagnosed cardiac diseases (for instance but not exclusive: unstable angina, heart block, arrhythmia’s, uncontrolled hypertension), diagnosed but poorly controlled diabetes mellitus or pulmonary diseases (e.g. but not exclusive COPD, exertional asthma, pulmonary emphysema).

9) Unavailable for more than 10% (approximately 2.5 weeks) of the 6 months