People with Parkinson's disease (PD) frequently have low activity levels, reduced quality of life and their caregivers often experience social isolation. Recent evidence suggests that tango dance program improve balance, functional mobility, spatial cognition and quality of life for patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact on caregivers’ burden feelings.

People with Parkinson disease and their caregivers participated in an adapted tango for PD dancing classes once per week for 3 months in Montpellier in France. Both balance (Berg Balance Scale, sit to stand test), gait (6-Minute Walk Test T6 M), mood (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) and caregivers burden (Zarit Caregiver Burden Inventory) were assessed prior and after therapy with appropriate tools and questionnaires. We analyzed pre-/post-differences with Wilcoxon tests.

Twenty-eight patients (not only Parkinson disease but also atypical forms, Hoehn and Yahr: 2.5 ± 0.65, duration of the disease: 7.4 y ± 5.1) and 18 caregivers enrolled in the program. Participants significantly improved at the Berg Balance Scale (54.3 ± 3.55 vs. 52.61 ± 5.03, P = 0.03). No significant improvement was observed on the other tests: sit to stand, T6 M, Hospital and Anxiety depression scale. We even noted an increasing Zarit scale (32.7 ± 17.9 vs. 25.5 ± 18.3) for the caregivers. Eight of them experienced infectious disease, cancer or stroke during the program, in accordance with their fragility.

As previously demonstrated, adapted tango was effective in improving balance in PD patients. In our study, we noted that even if, tango partenered dance is not enough to relieve caregivers from the stress of providing continuous care, we observe that, from now on, most of caregivers are able to recognize the signs of caregiver stress, so they can seek the necessary support.