Measurement Instruments to Assess Functional Mobility in Parkinson's Disease: A Systematic Review

Functional mobility (FM) is a person's ability to move to accomplish activities of daily living; it bridges the concepts of mobility and functional ability. There is frequently a loss of FM in Parkinson's disease (PD). Several instruments have been used to assess this concept in PD; however, there is no consensus on which are the most appropriate.

We aimed to identify and critically appraise which measurement instruments have been used to assess FM.

A systematic review was conducted using the databases CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, and PEDro from their inception to January 2019 to identify all observational and experimental studies conducted in PD or atypical parkinsonism that included an FM assessment. Two reviewers independently screened citations, extracted data, and assessed clinimetric properties.

We included 95 studies that assessed FM in PD. Fifty-five (57.9%) studies mentioned FM in the article, and 39 (41.1%) specified the measurement tools used to evaluate FM. FM was the primary outcome in 12 (12.6%) studies. The Timed Up and Go test was the most frequently used measurement tool. Only one study presented a definition of FM. Several overlapping terms were used, the most common being mobility.

Several studies reported the use of FM measurement tools in PD, though with frequent misconceptions, an inadequate context of use, or suboptimal assessment. We propose the establishment of the concept of FM applied to PD, followed by the adequate clinimetric validation of existing measurement tools to provide a comprehensive and reliable evaluation of FM in PD.