A few years ago, the organizers of one of the largest U.S. exercise programs for people with Parkinson’s disease realized they had a problem: Most of the students were white. But people who run Parkinson’s exercise programs in a handful of U.S. cities describe great difficulty in recruiting Black people. Johnson said his Chicago-area initiative offered a free six-month exercise program for Parkinson’s patients and increased marketing in the Black community but got little traction. When a white person shows up at the doctor’s office with such symptoms, a doctor would likely recognize them as signs of Parkinson’s, said Bernard Coley, an advocate for people with Parkinson’s disease, especially those in underengaged communities. After his less-than-successful efforts to recruit Black Parkinson’s patients into his exercise program in Chicago, Johnson concluded that the fact that he’s not Black is an “important factor.”Leventhal, who runs the Parkinson’s exercise program in New York, has come to the same conclusion.

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Persons: “ We’re, who’s, ”, David Leventhal, Mark Morris, New York City . Leventhal, Leventhal, it’s, ” Leventhal, Eddie Marritz, Parkinson’s —, Eric Johnson, Johnson, “, Bernard Coley, Coley, Amber Star Merkens, ” Coley, Wendy Lewis, Tammyjo, Black, he’s, puller Organizations: Mark Morris Dance Group, New York City ., Mark Morris Dance, Yale, Movement, Parkinson’s, Nature, Parkinson’s Foundation, Parkinson Council, Emory University, KFF Locations: U.S, New York City, Chicago, California, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York