TY - JOUR
T1 - Next Steps in Wearable Technology and Community Ambulation in Multiple Sclerosis
AU - Frechette, Mikaela L.
AU - Meyer, Brett M.
AU - Tulipani, Lindsey J.
AU - Gurchiek, Reed D.
AU - McGinnis, Ryan S.
AU - Sosnoff, Jacob J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Jacob J. Sosnoff reports personal fees from Abbvie, Inc. and grants from Permobile, Inc., National Multiple Sclerosis Society, National Institute of Health, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, outside the submitted work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2019/10/1
Y1 - 2019/10/1
N2 - Purpose of Review: Walking impairments are highly prevalent in persons with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) and are associated with reduced quality of life. Walking is traditionally quantified with various measures, including patient self-reports, clinical rating scales, performance measures, and advanced lab-based movement analysis techniques. Yet, the majority of these measures do not fully characterize walking (i.e., gait quality) nor adequately reflect walking in the real world (i.e., community ambulation) and have limited timescale (only measure walking at a single point in time). We discuss the potential of wearable sensors to provide sensitive, objective, and easy-to-use assessment of community ambulation in PwMS. Recent Findings: Wearable technology has the ability to measure all aspects of gait in PwMS yet is under-studied in comparison with other populations (e.g., older adults). Within the studies focusing on PwMS, half that measure pace collected free-living data, while only one study explored gait variability in free-living conditions. No studies explore gait asymmetry or complexity in free-living conditions. Summary: Wearable technology has the ability to provide objective, comprehensive, and sensitive measures of gait in PwMS. Future research should investigate this technology’s ability to accurately assess free-living measures of gait quality, specifically gait asymmetry and complexity.
AB - Purpose of Review: Walking impairments are highly prevalent in persons with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) and are associated with reduced quality of life. Walking is traditionally quantified with various measures, including patient self-reports, clinical rating scales, performance measures, and advanced lab-based movement analysis techniques. Yet, the majority of these measures do not fully characterize walking (i.e., gait quality) nor adequately reflect walking in the real world (i.e., community ambulation) and have limited timescale (only measure walking at a single point in time). We discuss the potential of wearable sensors to provide sensitive, objective, and easy-to-use assessment of community ambulation in PwMS. Recent Findings: Wearable technology has the ability to measure all aspects of gait in PwMS yet is under-studied in comparison with other populations (e.g., older adults). Within the studies focusing on PwMS, half that measure pace collected free-living data, while only one study explored gait variability in free-living conditions. No studies explore gait asymmetry or complexity in free-living conditions. Summary: Wearable technology has the ability to provide objective, comprehensive, and sensitive measures of gait in PwMS. Future research should investigate this technology’s ability to accurately assess free-living measures of gait quality, specifically gait asymmetry and complexity.
KW - Community ambulation
KW - Gait
KW - Gait quality
KW - Multiple sclerosis
KW - Wearable technology
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U2 - 10.1007/s11910-019-0997-9
DO - 10.1007/s11910-019-0997-9
M3 - Review article
C2 - 31485896
AN - SCOPUS:85071749175
SN - 1528-4042
VL - 19
JO - Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports
JF - Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports
IS - 10
M1 - 80
ER -