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Updated: Oct 13, 2025
A Method for Quantifying Upper Limb Performance in Daily Life Using Accelerometers
Published on: April 21, 2017
Quantification of Daily-Living Gait Quantity and Quality Using a Wrist-Worn Accelerometer in Huntington's Disease
Karin Keren1,2, Monica Busse3, Nora E Fritz4
1Center for the Study of Movement, Cognition and Mobility, Neurological Institute, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Insights
Huntington
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Biomedical Engineering
- Movement Disorders
Background:
- Huntington's disease (HD) significantly impacts gait and daily physical activity.
- Accurate gait measurement in HD requires accounting for involuntary movements like chorea.
- Current methods may not fully capture the complexities of daily walking in HD.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess daily-living gait quantity and quality in individuals with Huntington's disease.
- To investigate the influence of irregular movements (chorea) on gait patterns.
- To validate wearable sensor technology for gait analysis in HD.
Main Methods:
- Utilized inertial measurement units (IMUs) and accelerometers for gait data collection.
- Developed and tested an algorithm for automated walking detection.
- Collected 7-day continuous gait data from individuals with HD and non-HD peers.
Main Results:
- Gait quantity (steps, walking time) was similar between HD and non-HD groups.
- HD participants exhibited a higher percentage of walking bouts with irregular movements, correlated with chorea severity.
- Gait consistency within and across walking bouts differed significantly between HD and non-HD individuals, even after accounting for irregular movements.
Conclusions:
- Wrist-worn accelerometers effectively measure daily-living gait quantity and quality in HD.
- Gait consistency metrics are sensitive to differences between HD and non-HD individuals.
- Wearable sensors offer a viable tool for monitoring gait in Huntington's disease, considering chorea's impact.
Abstract:
Background: Huntington's disease (HD) leads to altered gait patterns and reduced daily-living physical activity. Accurate measurement of daily-living walking that takes into account involuntary movements (e.g. chorea) is needed. Objective: To evaluate daily-living gait quantity and quality in HD, taking into account irregular movements. Methods: Forty-two individuals with HD and fourteen age-matched non-HD peers completed clinic-based assessments and a standardized laboratory-based circuit of functional activities, wearing inertial measurement units on the wrists, legs, and trunk. These activities were used to train and test an algorithm for the automated detection of walking. Subsequently, 29 HD participants and 22 age-matched non-HD peers wore a tri-axial accelerometer on their non-dominant wrist for 7 days. Measures included gait quantity (e.g., steps per day), gait quality (e.g., regularity) metrics, and percentage of walking bouts with irregular movements. Results: Measures of daily-living gait quantity including step counts, walking time and bouts per day were similar in HD participants and non-HD peers (p > 0.05). HD participants with higher clinician-rated upper body chorea had a greater percentage of walking bouts with irregular movements compared to those with lower chorea (p = 0.060) and non-HD peers (p < 0.001). Even after accounting for irregular movements, within-bout walking consistency was lower in HD participants compared to non-HD peers (p < 0.001), while across-bout variability of these measures was higher (p < 0.001). Many of the daily-living measures were associated with disease-specific measures of motor function. Conclusions: Results suggest that a wrist-worn accelerometer can be used to evaluate the quantity and quality of daily-living gait in people with HD, while accounting for the influence of irregular (choreic-like) movements, and that gait features related to within- and across-bout consistency markedly differ in individuals with HD and non-HD peers.
