Mobility assessment in people with Alzheimer disease using smartphone sensors.
Pilar Serra-Añó, José Francisco Pedrero-Sánchez, Juan Hurtado-Abellán and 3 others
PMID 31412893WHAT IT FOUND
A smartphone sensor mobility test found people with mild or moderate Alzheimer disease took longer, produced less power standing and turning, and had slower single-task reaction time than controls.
Adding a story mainly increased standing sway.
Key findings
01Both Alzheimer groups took longer to complete the test and produced less power during sit-to-stand and turn-to-sit than controls, and they had longer single-task reaction time.
02The mild and moderate Alzheimer groups did not differ from each other on any mobility variable.
03Adding a story increased medial-lateral displacement during quiet standing in all groups, and increased anterior-posterior displacement only in the moderate Alzheimer group.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
It is cross-sectional, so it cannot show that the mobility changes predict Alzheimer disease progression. Only people with mild or moderate Alzheimer disease were included, so it does not address earlier mild cognitive impairment or later stages. The mild and moderate Alzheimer groups did not differ on any variable, so it does not support staging. Participants were recruited purposively from Alzheimer associations and leisure facilities, so the groups may not represent all patients or controls. Some differences were limited to specific variables or task conditions, so the pattern was not uniform across the test.
Declared interests
The study was funded by Dirección General de Investigación Científica y Técnica. No additional conflict-of-interest statement is provided in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use this test to distinguish mild from moderate Alzheimer disease, because no variable differed between those stages. Do not conclude that dual-tasking impaired walking or sit-to-stand in Alzheimer disease; the moving-task variables did not change during the story condition in the Alzheimer groups.