Category: Parkinson’s Disease: Clinical Trials
Objective: To investigate which specific digital gait and turning measures, obtained with body-worn sensors, best differentiate fallers from non-fallers with PD during daily life.
Background: Approximately 60% of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) fall at least once a year and 39% fall recurrently. Hence, identifying digital gait and turning measures during daily life is important for developing interventions to prevent falls, as these parameters may be used as outcomes in clinical trials.
Method: A total of 109 individuals with idiopathic PD (36 with a history of and 73 non-fallers), age: 69 ± 7 years, disease duration: 9 ± 6 years, MDS-UPDRS III in ON medication state: 31 ± 9 participated in the study. Participants were classified as fallers (at least one fall) or non-fallers based on self-reported falls in the past 6 months. Subjects were asked to wear 2 instrumented socks and a sensor on the waist (Opal by APDM Wearable Technologies, a Clario Company) for a week of continuous monitoring for at least 8 hours/per day. We derived 55 digital outcome measures of gait and turning.
Results: The total duration of recordings (non-fallers:62 vs. fallers:65 hours; p=0.357) and activity measures (such as steps/hour, and turns/hour) were similar between retrospective fallers and non-fallers. In contrast, we found the quality of gait and turning measures were significantly different between fallers and non-fallers. Specifically, an average turn duration per step (p<0.001), turn angle (p=0.005), and variability of pitch angle during a heel strike (p=0.006) were the top significantly different measures in fallers.
Conclusion: Quality of gait and turning during daily living, and not quantity, were significantly different in fallers compared to non-fallers. Future work will focus on elucidating the best gait and turning measures that differentiate prospective fallers from non-fallers in PD.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
V. Shah, C. Silva-Batista, P. Burgos, A. Ragothaman, P. Carlson-Kuhta, K. Sowalsky, F. Horak, M. Mancini. Digital gait and turning impairments (quality but not quantity) during daily life are more severe in retrospective fallers compared to non-fallers with Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2023; 38 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/digital-gait-and-turning-impairments-quality-but-not-quantity-during-daily-life-are-more-severe-in-retrospective-fallers-compared-to-non-fallers-with-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed May 11, 2025.« Back to 2023 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/digital-gait-and-turning-impairments-quality-but-not-quantity-during-daily-life-are-more-severe-in-retrospective-fallers-compared-to-non-fallers-with-parkinsons-disease/