The impact of anxiety on gait impairments in Parkinson's disease: insights from sensor-based gait analysis.

The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that anxiety caused the gait differences. The anxiety group had longer disease duration, more depression symptoms, lower cognitive scores, and more female participants, which may confound the association. All participants could walk independently, so the findings may not apply to people with Parkinson's disease who need assistance devices. Gait was measured after antiparkinsonian medication was stopped for 18 hours, not in the usual medication state in which many patients receive therapy. The study recruited from one centre, so selection bias is possible. No anxiety treatment was tested, so the paper cannot show that treating anxiety improves gait. In the dual-task test, some participants may have focused more on walking and others more on counting, which can reduce reliability. Gait speed was not included as a potential confounding factor.

Funded by the Zhejiang Provincial Public Service and Application Research Foundation, the Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Zhejiang Province, the Ningbo Medical Key Discipline, and the Hwa Mei Foundation. The paper does not report author conflicts of interest.

Do not conclude that treating anxiety improves gait. This was an observational cross-sectional study of people who already had or did not have anxiety, not a treatment trial, and gait was measured only after medication was stopped for 18 hours.