Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 31, 2025
Clinical Assessment of Spatiotemporal Gait Parameters in Patients and Older Adults
Published on: November 7, 2014
Reliability of using foot-worn devices to measure gait parameters in people with Parkinson's disease
Ya-Yun Lee1,2, Min-Hao Li1,2, Jer-Junn Luh1
1School and Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Background:
Recent advances in technology have warranted the use of wearable sensors to monitor gait and posture. However, the psychometric properties of using wearable devices to measure gait-related outcomes have not been fully established in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).
Objective:
This study aimed to investigate the test-retest reliability of body-worn sensors for gait evaluation in people with PD. Additionally, the influence of disease severity on the reliability was determined.
Methods:
Twenty individuals with PD were recruited. During the first evaluation, the participants wore inertial sensors on their shoes and walked along a walkway thrice at their comfortable walking speed. The participants were then required to return to the lab after 3-5 days to complete the second evaluation with the same study procedure. Test-retest reliability of gait-related outcomes were calculated. To determine whether the results would be affected by disease severity, reliability was re-calculated by subdividing the participants into early and mid-advanced stages of the disease.
Results:
The results showed moderate to good reliability (ICC = 0.64-0.87) of the wearable sensors for gait assessment in the general population with PD. Subgroup analysis showed that the reliability was higher among patients at early stages (ICC = 0.71-0.97) compared to those at mid-advanced stages (ICC = 0.65-0.81) of PD.
Conclusions:
Wearable sensors could reliably measure gait parameters in people with PD, and the reliability was higher among individuals at early stages of the disease compared to those at mid-advanced stages. Absolute reliability values were calculated to act as references for future studies.
