Unsupervised but not supervised gait parameters are related to fatigue in Parkinson's disease: a pilot study

Andrea Pilotto; Andrea Rizzardi; Cinzia Zatti; Clint Hansen; Antonio Donini; Robbin Romijnders; Walter Maetzler; Alessandro Padovani

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2023.1279722

Unsupervised but not supervised gait parameters are related to fatigue in Parkinson's disease: a pilot study

Front Aging Neurosci. 2023 Nov 21:15:1279722. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2023.1279722. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Andrea Pilotto^{1

2

3}, Andrea Rizzardi^{1

2}, Cinzia Zatti^{1

2}, Clint Hansen^{4

5}, Antonio Donini¹, Robbin Romijnders^{4

5}, Walter Maetzler^{4

5}, Alessandro Padovani^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Neurology Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
² Laboratory of Digital Neurology and Biosensors, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
³ Neurology Unit, Department of Continuity of Care and Frailty, ASST Spedali Civili Brescia Hospital, Brescia, Italy.
⁴ Department of Neurology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany.
⁵ Department of Neurology, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany.

Abstract

Introduction: Fatigue is a common and disabling symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD), also affecting gait. Detection of fatigue-associated changes of gait using mobile health technologies (MHT) could become increasingly effective.

Methods: Cognitively unimpaired PD patients without fluctuations (UPDRS IV < 1) underwent a standard neurological assessment including the PD-Fatigue scale (PFS-16). PD patients with (PD-F) and without fatigue (PD-N) were matched for age, sex, cognitive function and disease severity. Each participant underwent MHT gait assessment under supervised condition (SC) and unsupervised condition (UC).

Results: Gait parameters of 21 PD-F and 21 PD-N did not significantly differ under SC. Under UC, PD-F showed higher step time, step time variability and asymmetry index compared to PD-N and the PFS-16 correlated with step time.

Conclusion: This is the first MHT-based study with PD patients showing a correlation between fatigue and gait parameters. In addition, the data collected suggest that UC is clearly superior to SC in addressing this question.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; fatigue; gait analysis; mobile health technology; supervised and unsupervised assessment.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.