BACKGROUND: Postural instability is a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. Objective metrics to characterize postural stability are necessary for the development of treatment algorithms to aid in the clinical setting.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this project was to validate a mobile device platform and resultant three-dimensional balance metric that characterizes postural stability.
METHODS: A mobile Application was developed, in which biomechanical data from inertial sensors within a mobile device were processed to characterize movement of center of mass in the medial-lateral, anterior-posterior and trunk rotation directions. Twenty-seven individuals with Parkinson’s disease and 27 age-matched controls completed various balance tasks. A postural stability metric quantifying the amplitude (peak-to-peak) of sway acceleration in each movement direction was compared between groups. The peak-to-peak value in each direction for each individual with Parkinson’s disease across all trials was expressed as a normalized value of the control data to identify individuals with severe postural instability, termed Cleveland Clinic-Postural Stability Index.
RESULTS: In all conditions, the balance metric for peak-to-peak was significantly greater in Parkinson’s disease compared to controls (p < 0.01 for all tests).
CONCLUSIONS: The balance metric, in conjunction with mobile device sensors, provides a rapid and systematic metric for quantifying postural stability in Parkinson’s disease.
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