Objective: Parkinson’s disease involves gait disorders varying over a day and over the course of the disease. Few is known about the way patients walk in their environment. This study aimed at assessing feasibility of gait evaluation with connected insoles in a daily life setting.

Background: Gait is usually assessed using various scales to evaluate patients’ status and evolution (e.g. MDS-UPDRS). However, it is it is an indirect glance of the way patients walk at home. FeetMe® Monitor is a connected insole embarking pressure and motion sensors and an embedded calculation power to evaluate gait. Our study evaluates the feasibility of connected insoles worn at home and provides preliminary results versus in hospital setting evaluation.

Method: 9 PD patients were assessed in a hospital setting in ON and OFF drug conditions during a 7-meter test with a half turn repeated three times at comfortable pace (respectively ON-HOSP and OFF-HOSP). Subsequently, they were assessed in real-life to monitor their activity for 7 consecutive days with the connected insoles. The total number of steps, the total ambulation time and the number of days of wearing were used to evaluate the feasibility. Metrics evaluated in all described conditions were stride length and duration, velocity, cadence, and swing duration.

Results: 2 women and 7 men with a mean age: 58.8±10y and a mean MDS-UPDRS Motor score in ON status: 21± 10; mean MDS-UPDRS Motor score in OFF status: 26± 11 were assessed. On average, patients worn the insoles 8.4±3.4 days, with a total activity of 23.1±15.7 hours and 39,632±23,778 steps. No patients reported any discomfort related to the insoles. No related Adverse events were observed.Results were consistent for all parameters with gait parameters at home worst compared to ON-HOSP but better than OFF-HOSP (e.g. mean velocity (m/s): 0.97 in ON-HOSP, 0.85 at home and 0.71 in OFF-HOSP). Standard deviations were higher at home compared to both ON and OFF status (e.g. mean velocity (m/s): 0.26 in ON-HOSP, 0.35 at home and 0.21 in OFF-HOSP).

Conclusion: FeetMe® Monitor insoles can be used safely at home to assess PD gait. Moreover, results were consistent with better gait parameters in the ON state and more variability in the ecological condition. Further studies are needed to extend to a larger population and to allow a differentiation between the different states at home.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/monitoring-gait-in-parkinsons-disease-pd-at-home-with-connected-insoles-a-feasibility-study/