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Ambulatory Activity Examined in Parkinson Patients

J Neurolog Phys Ther; ePub 2017 Mar 3; Christiansen, et al

Daily step count in non-exercising people recruited for an intervention trial with de novo Parkinson disease approached sedentary lifestyle levels. Researchers analyzed baseline data from a randomized controlled trial, which excluded people performing regular endurance exercise. Of 128 eligible participants (mean ± SD = 64.3 ± 8.6 years), 113 had complete accelerometer data, which were used to determine daily step count. Multiple linear regression was used to identify factors associated with average daily step count over 10 days. They found:

  • Average daily step count was 5,362 ± 2,890 steps per day.
  • 5 factors explained 24% of daily step count variability, with higher step count associated with higher cardiorespiratory fitness (10%), no fear/worry of falling (5%), lower motor severity examination score (4%), more recent time since Parkinson disease diagnosis (3%), and the presence of a cardiovascular condition (2%).

Citation:

Christiansen C, Moore C, Schenkman M, et al. Factors associated with ambulatory activity in de novo Parkinson disease. [Published online ahead of print March 3, 2017]. J Neurolog Phys Ther. doi:10.1097/NPT.0000000000000169.