Speeding Up Gait in Parkinson's Disease

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Biomechanics
• Movement Science

Background:

• Gait speed is a key indicator of mobility, function, and mortality, often affected in people with Parkinson's disease (PwPD).
• Changes in gait speed alone may not fully capture the complex alterations in gait characteristics experienced by PwPD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify which gait outcomes change concurrently with walking speed in PwPD.
• To guide the selection of appropriate outcome measures for assessing and monitoring gait performance in this population.

Main Methods:

• 67 PwPD and 40 neurotypical adults performed 2-minute overground walks at comfortable and fast speeds.
• Inertial sensors captured detailed gait and turning parameters.
• A subset analysis compared PwPD walking fast to neurotypical adults walking comfortably to control for gait speed.

Main Results:

• Fast walking significantly altered stride length, cadence, and stride time variability in PwPD, but not steps to turn, trunk range of motion, or stability.
• PwPD demonstrated altered turning, lumbar stability, and stride length/cadence even when walking at speeds comparable to neurotypical adults.

Conclusions:

• Gait speed is crucial for mobility assessment, but in PwPD, other gait parameters remain affected independently of speed.
• Careful selection of outcome measures is essential to comprehensively evaluate the diverse gait abnormalities in PwPD.