Uncontrolled head oscillations in people with Parkinson's disease may reflect an inability to respond to perturbations while walking

Fall injuries in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) are a major health problem. Increased sway while walking is a risk factor and further understanding of this destabilizing gait change may assist with rehabilitation and help prevent falls. Here, stride-to-stride head oscillations are used to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physiological measurement 2015-05, Vol.36 (5), p.873-881
Main Authors: Brodie, Matthew A D, Canning, Colleen G, Beijer, Tim R, Lord, Stephen R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
accelerometers
Accelerometry
Accidental Falls
Adult
Aged
Case-Control Studies
Female
Gait - physiology
head
Head - physiopathology
Humans
Hypokinesia - complications
Male
Parkinson Disease - complications
Parkinson Disease - physiopathology
Parkinson Disease - rehabilitation
Parkinson's disease
Postural Balance
sensors
sway
walking
Walking - physiology
wearable
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Summary:Fall injuries in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) are a major health problem. Increased sway while walking is a risk factor and further understanding of this destabilizing gait change may assist with rehabilitation and help prevent falls. Here, stride-to-stride head oscillations are used to help characterise different aspects of gait impairment in 10 people with PD on medication (67 years, SD 4), 10 healthy age-matched (HAM) participants (66 years, SD 7), and 10 young (30 years, SD 7). A wearable accelerometer was used to analyse head oscillations during five repeat 17 m walks by each participant. People with PD had significantly faster transverse plane head oscillations than the HAM or young groups; both along mediolateral (PD 47.2 cm s−1, HAM 32.5 cm s−1, and young 32.7 cm s−1) and anterioposterior axes (PD 33.3 cm s−1, HAM 24.5 cm s−1, and young 20.6 cm s−1). These differences were uncorrelated with reduced vertical oscillation velocity (PD 15.5 cm s−1, HAM 18.8 cm s−1, and young 20.1 cm s−1) and reduced walking speed (PD 1.2 m s−1, HAM 1.4 m s−1, and young 1.4 m s−1). Increased transverse plane head oscillations in people with PD may reflect motor impairment and the inability to respond sufficiently to perturbations while walking, which appears to be distinct from gait hyperkinesia, reduced vertical oscillations, step length, and walking speed.
ISSN:0967-3334
1361-6579
DOI:10.1088/0967-3334/36/5/873