7-Year Warning Sign

A team of researchers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney has found that subtle changes in walking patterns can be detected up to 7 years before a Parkinson's diagnosis. The study, which used data from the UK Biobank and wrist sensor recordings from over 73,000 people, identified differences in walking patterns between individuals who later received a Parkinson's diagnosis and those who did not.

The researchers analyzed usable recordings from 73,413 people and followed them through their medical records for up to a decade. During the follow-up period, 314 people received a Parkinson's diagnosis after wearing the sensor. The study found that people who later received a Parkinson's diagnosis tended to spend less of their walking time swinging their arms naturally, with differences detectable up to 7 years before diagnosis.

The study also found that people diagnosed with Parkinson's within 40 months of wearing the sensor averaged about 4,000 steps a day, compared to about 6,400 steps a day among people with no recorded Parkinson's diagnosis during follow-up. The researchers used software called Watch Walk to analyze the wrist sensor recordings and estimate walking patterns, including step count, walking speed, and step regularity.

The study's joint first authors, Paulo Pelicioni and Sophie Waller, are researchers at the University of New South Wales and are affiliated with the neurology department at Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital. They used the UK Biobank, a long-running health study that invited over 100,000 volunteers to wear a wrist sensor for a week, to collect the data for the study.

## Why it matters The study's findings are significant because they suggest that subtle changes in walking patterns can be an early warning sign of Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's disease can disrupt the coordination of movement, causing muscles to stiffen and movements to slow. The study's results could potentially lead to the development of new methods for early detection and diagnosis of the disease.

The study's use of wrist sensor recordings and software analysis also highlights the potential of technology to aid in the detection and diagnosis of diseases. The ability to detect subtle changes in walking patterns up to 7 years before a Parkinson's diagnosis could lead to earlier interventions and improved treatment outcomes for patients.

## What happens next The study's findings will likely be of interest to researchers and clinicians working on the development of new methods for early detection and diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. Further research will be needed to confirm the study's results and to explore the potential of using wrist sensor recordings and software analysis as a tool for early detection of the disease.