Measuring freezing of gait during daily-life: an open-source, wearable sensors approach.
Martina Mancini, Vrutangkumar V Shah, Samuel Stuart and 4 others
PMID 33397401WHAT IT FOUND
A wearable sensor algorithm detects freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease with good accuracy for episodes lasting two seconds or more, but it is unreliable for very brief episodes.
In daily life, people who reported freezing spent more time freezing and turned less completely than those who did not.
Key findings
01The algorithm agreed strongly with expert video ratings for short (2-5 s) and long (> 5 s) freezing episodes, but agreement was poor for very short episodes (< 1 s).
02In daily life, people with Parkinson's disease who reported freezing spent significantly more time freezing and had less variability in freezing time than those who did not report freezing.
03People with freezing had significantly smaller average turning angles and shorter turning durations than those without freezing, even after adjusting for disease duration.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The algorithm is not reliable for detecting very short freezing episodes (under 1 second), which may be clinically relevant. The study did not validate the algorithm's performance in the home setting against a gold-standard video or pressure insole measure. People with freezing had significantly longer disease duration than those without, and after adjusting for this, many gait differences disappeared, suggesting some findings may reflect disease progression rather than freezing specifically. The study excluded people who could not walk without an assistive device, so results may not apply to those with more advanced mobility impairment.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H., Extramural). The authors declared no other conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this algorithm can accurately detect all freezing episodes. It is unreliable for very brief episodes (under 1 second), and its validity in the home setting has not yet been confirmed against a gold standard.