2020 APTA Combined Sections Meeting Scientific Poster Presentation: How Well Do Clinical Walking Measures Predict Natural Walking Behavior In Parkinson Disease?

Declines in the amount and intensity of natural walking behavior in people with Parkinson disease (PD) may precede declines in motor behavior, gait, and balance. Physical interventions targeting walking behavior in PD may have the greatest impact on slowing the progression of disability. Despite a lack of supporting evidence, however, clinicians may be more likely to rely on quick performance measures of walking speed, capacity, and balance to make inferences about a patient’s walking health, rather than direct measures of natural walking behavior. Our primary purpose, therefore, was to examine the extent to which clinical walking measures might predict natural walking behavior in early to mid-stage PD. Secondarily we sought to explore differences in the predictive capability of clinical measures between relatively less active and more active participants.https://dune.une.edu/pt_facpost/1006/thumbnail.jp