Touchscreen use in people with Parkinson's disease - frequency, cognition and upper limb function
Noa Cohen1,2,3, Alexandra Danial-Saad1, Rachel Kizony4
1Occupational Therapy Department, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Disability and Rehabilitation. Assistive Technology
|May 20, 2026
Summary
People with Parkinson's disease (PD) use touchscreens mainly for communication. Daily use and performance on these devices are strongly linked to cognitive abilities, especially executive function.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Gerontology
Background:
- Parkinson's disease (PD) affects motor control and cognitive functions.
- Touchscreen devices are integral to daily life, but their use and performance in individuals with PD are not well understood.
- Understanding these factors is crucial for maintaining independence and quality of life.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate daily touchscreen usage patterns and performance in people with Parkinson's disease (PWP).
- To explore the associations between touchscreen use/performance and cognitive abilities, as well as upper limb function.
- To identify predictors of touchscreen use in this population.
Main Methods:
- Thirty-four PWP completed questionnaires on touchscreen use and underwent assessments including the Touchscreen Assessment Tool, Trail Making Test (TMT) A and B, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Coin Rotation Task (CRT), and Movement Disorder Society-Unified PD Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) upper limb items.
- Logistic regression was used to model daily touchscreen use.
- Correlations were calculated to assess associations between cognitive/motor measures and touchscreen performance.
Main Results:
- Messaging, internet browsing, and navigation were the most common touchscreen applications used by PWP.
- Executive function was a significant predictor of daily touchscreen use, explaining 60% of the variance.
- Touchscreen performance, particularly keyboard typing, showed stronger correlations with cognitive measures (especially executive function) than with motor function.
Conclusions:
- PWP primarily utilize touchscreens for social communication.
- Both the extent of daily touchscreen use and performance are significantly associated with cognitive abilities.
- Cognitive function is a critical factor to consider in the design of evaluations, accessibility modifications, and interventions for touchscreen use in PWP.
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