School and Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Division of Physical Therapy, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
NeuroRehabilitation. 2021;49(1):57-64. doi: 10.3233/NRE-210101.
Recent advances in technology have warranted the use of wearable sensors to monitor gait and posture. However, the psychometric properties of using wearable devices to measure gait-related outcomes have not been fully established in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).
This study aimed to investigate the test-retest reliability of body-worn sensors for gait evaluation in people with PD. Additionally, the influence of disease severity on the reliability was determined.
Twenty individuals with PD were recruited. During the first evaluation, the participants wore inertial sensors on their shoes and walked along a walkway thrice at their comfortable walking speed. The participants were then required to return to the lab after 3-5 days to complete the second evaluation with the same study procedure. Test-retest reliability of gait-related outcomes were calculated. To determine whether the results would be affected by disease severity, reliability was re-calculated by subdividing the participants into early and mid-advanced stages of the disease.
The results showed moderate to good reliability (ICC = 0.64-0.87) of the wearable sensors for gait assessment in the general population with PD. Subgroup analysis showed that the reliability was higher among patients at early stages (ICC = 0.71-0.97) compared to those at mid-advanced stages (ICC = 0.65-0.81) of PD.
Wearable sensors could reliably measure gait parameters in people with PD, and the reliability was higher among individuals at early stages of the disease compared to those at mid-advanced stages. Absolute reliability values were calculated to act as references for future studies.
技术的最新进展使得使用可穿戴传感器来监测步态和姿势成为可能。然而，在帕金森病（PD）患者中，使用可穿戴设备来测量与步态相关的结果的心理测量学特性尚未完全建立。
本研究旨在调查可穿戴传感器在 PD 患者步态评估中的测试-重测信度。此外，还确定了疾病严重程度对可靠性的影响。
招募了 20 名 PD 患者。在第一次评估中，参与者在鞋子上佩戴惯性传感器，并以舒适的步行速度在步道上走三遍。然后，要求参与者在 3-5 天后返回实验室，以相同的研究程序完成第二次评估。计算了与步态相关的结果的测试-重测信度。为了确定结果是否会受到疾病严重程度的影响，通过将参与者分为疾病的早期和中晚期阶段，重新计算了可靠性。
结果表明，在一般 PD 人群中，可穿戴传感器对步态评估具有中度至高度可靠性（ICC=0.64-0.87）。亚组分析表明，与处于中晚期（ICC=0.65-0.81）的 PD 患者相比，早期（ICC=0.71-0.97）患者的可靠性更高。
可穿戴传感器可可靠地测量 PD 患者的步态参数，与处于疾病中晚期的患者相比，处于疾病早期的患者的可靠性更高。计算了绝对可靠性值，可作为未来研究的参考。
