Association between Objectively Measured Physical Activity and Gait Patterns in People with Parkinson's Disease: Results from a 3-Month Monitoring.

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BackgroundAlthough physical activity (PA) is known to be beneficial in improving motor symptoms of people with Parkinson's disease (pwPD), little is known about the relationship between gait patterns and features of PA performed during daily life.ObjectiveTo verify the existence of possible relationships between spatiotemporal and kinematic parameters of gait and amount/intensity of PA, both instrumentally assessed.MethodsEighteen individuals affected by PD (10F and 8M, age 68.0 ± 10.8 years, 1.5 ≤ Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) ResultsThe analysis of hourly trends of PA revealed the existence of two peaks located in the morning (approximately at 10) and in the early evening (between 18 and 19). However, during the morning time slot (06:00-12:00), pwPD performed significantly higher amounts of steps (4313 vs. 3437 in the 12:00-18:00 time slot, p p=0.021) and of moderate-to-vigorous PA (43.2% vs. 36.3% in the 12:00-18:00 time slot, p=0.002, and vs. 31.4% in the 18:00-24:00 time slot, p=0.049). The correlation analysis shows that several PA intensity parameters are significantly associated with swing-phase duration (rho = -0.675 for sedentary intensity, rho = 0.717 for moderate-to-vigorous intensity, p p p p ConclusionsLong-term monitoring of PA integrated by the quantitative assessment of spatiotemporal and kinematic parameters of gait may represent a useful tool in supporting a better-targeted prescription of PA and rehabilitative treatments in pwPD.

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