No relevant association of kinematic gait parameters with Health-related Quality of Life in Parkinson's disease

• Published in: PloS one 2017-05, Vol.12 (5), p.e0176816-e0176816
• Main Authors: Bettecken, Kristina, Bernhard, Felix, Sartor, Jennifer, Hobert, Markus A, Hofmann, Marc, Gladow, Till, van Uem, Janet M T, Liepelt-Scarfone, Inga, Maetzler, Walter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Algorithms; Anxiety; Biocompatibility; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomechanical Phenomena; Biomedical materials; Brain; Brain research; Chronic illnesses; Classification; Clinical trials; Cognitive ability; Colleges & universities; Criteria; Development and progression; Diagnosis; Drugs; Eggs; Engineering and Technology; Environmental assessment; Environmental factors; Ethics; Evaluation; Falling; Fatigue; Female; Females; Freezing; Gait; Geriatrics; Health; Health aspects; Health services; Humans; Information dissemination; Kinematics; Male; Markers; Measuring instruments; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental depression; Middle Aged; Mood; Motor task performance; Movement disorders; Multiple sclerosis; Neurodegeneration; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurology; Older people; Osteoarthritis; Parkinson disease; Parkinson Disease - physiopathology; Parkinson's disease; Performance assessment; Physical activity; Physical Sciences; Physiological aspects; Psychiatry; Quality of Life; Regression Analysis; Regularity; Research and Analysis Methods; Risk assessment; Self-Help Devices - utilization; Sensors; Stroke; Visual perception; Winter
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176816

Health-related Quality of Life (HrQoL) is probably the most important outcome parameter for the evaluation and management of chronic diseases. As this parameter is subjective and prone to bias, there is an urgent need to identify objective surrogate markers. Gait velocity has been shown to be associated with HrQoL in numerous chronic diseases, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). With the development and wide availability of simple-to-use wearable sensors and sophisticated gait algorithms, kinematic gait parameters may soon be implemented in clinical routine management. However, the association of such kinematic gait parameters with HrQoL in PD has not been assessed to date. Kinematic gait parameters from a 20-meter walk from 43 PD patients were extracted using a validated wearable sensor system. They were compared with the Visual Analogue Scale of the Euro-Qol-5D (EQ-5D VAS) by performing a multiple regression analysis, with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) model as a framework. Use of assistive gait equipment, but no kinematic gait parameter, was significantly associated with HrQoL. The widely accepted concept of a positive association between gait velocity and HrQoL may, at least in PD, be driven by relatively independent parameters, such as assistive gait equipment.