An app for people with early to mid disease stage Parkinson’s disease wanting support at home to carry out basic exercises that may assist in the management of their condition.
| Note: This app appears to no longer be available in the New Zealand app stores. |
| 9zest Parkinson's Therapy & Exercises |
By 9zest |
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- Exercise plans for Parkinson’s
- Progress tracking
- Goal setting
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| Clinical review |
Read a clinical review of this app.
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| User reviews |
 (0 reviews) Rate this app
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| Security and privacy |
Does the app:
- collect medical information: Yes (outcome of assessments, questionnaire on basic abilities falls etc)
- require a login: Yes
- have password protection: Unsure
- have a privacy policy: Yes
- require internet access: Yes
Read more: safety tips around health apps
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| Get the app from |
App website iTunes |
| Cost |
Cost: free (basic); paid (upgrade) |
What does the app do?
This app is for people with early to mid-disease stage Parkinson’s wanting support at home to carry out basic exercises that may assist in the management of their condition. The app aims to encourage physical activity level through structured exercise and improve compliance with and execution of exercises prescribed by a physiotherapist or exercise professional. The app may also be helpful to physiotherapists or exercise professionals working with people with Parkinson’s, as an adjunct to helping patients carry out exercises.
For the complete app description, go to App website and iTunes or for a detailed review, see Reviews.
| PROS |
CONS |
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✔ The app claims its exercises use principles of neuroplasticity (repetition, complexity, saliency).
✔ Has tracking and goal planning features.
✔ Exercises appear easy to follow, well described and of adequate repetition. Many of the exercises came with examples of how to modify the exercise (make harder/easier) if required.
✔ The background information on the app cites Terry Ellis as a contributor to the content and she is an acknowledged expert in the field of physical activity and physiotherapy for Parkinson’s.
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✘ The app is quite expensive ($21.49 per month or yearly subscription of $129.99). It is a bit unclear what features you gain with the paid version – it seems the free version only offers two sample exercise plans (Sample work-out and Holistic Parkinson’s).
✘ Has advertising video included in app to promote and encourage subscription which seems to show before and after videos of people with Parkinson’s. However, there is no context to these videos (eg, after using the app, for how long, at what intensity/dosage) and they may be misleading.
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Review details
Date of review: June 2019
Platform reviewed: Android
Version: 3.2.2
Download size:
Updated on: 3 October 2018
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| Note: This app appears to no longer be available in the New Zealand app stores. |
Clinical review
Reviewer: Tara Martin, Neurological Physiotherapist
Date of review: June 2018
Comments: This app is for people with early to mid-disease stage Parkinson’s wanting assistance at home to carry out basic exercises that may assist in the management of their Parkinson’s. It is essentially an app with a series of exercise plans for Parkinson’s. The plans are supported further with a progress tracking feature and goal setting. The app claims its exercises use principles of neuroplasticity (repetition, complexity, saliency). The app also attempts to improve compliance with exercise by using progress tracking and goal planning features. The exercises I could view were easy to follow, well described and of adequate repetition. Many of the exercises came with examples of how to modify the exercise (make harder/easier) if required. The background information on the app cites Terry Ellis as a contributor to the content and she is an acknowledged expert in the field of physical activity and physiotherapy for Parkinson’s.
The app is quite expensive ($21.49 per month or yearly subscription of $129.99). It is a bit unclear what features you gain with the paid version and from reviewing it seems the free version only offers two sample exercise plans (Sample work-out and Holistic Parkinson’s). Both of these programmes seem quite basic and focus on range of movement and flexibility, so it is hard to establish if there are other useful exercises for cardiovascular fitness, balance (high and low level) and more typically problematic functional skills (such as getting up from the floor, bed mobility). It would be useful also if you were able to individually select specific exercises to put into a programme (eg, if a therapist and client were working together and using app to help build a home exercise programme). It was unclear from free version if you could do this.
Safety concerns: The app has disclaimers that regularly pop up which state it is not intended as a substitution to medical consultation and that exercisers should consult a health professional and are responsible for exercising within own limits. Provided users adhere to this information and have adequate self-awareness to moderate their behaviour appropriately, the risk should be minimal and similar to, or less than, the risk of exercising unsupervised without any prior consultation.
New Zealand relevance: The app videos use a computer-generated voice with an American accent and some north American phrases; however, these should be fairly familiar to New Zealand audiences. The exercise videos also use gesture, short verbal phrases and repetition to increase understanding.
