Comparing self-reported and objective monitoring of physical activity in Parkinson disease

Introduction: Monitoring physical activity is important in Parkinson disease (PD), but patient recall may be unreliable. We examined relationships between self-reported activity, objective monitoring, and clinical characteristics.

Methods: Participants completed the self-reported Physical Activity Scale in the Elderly (PASE) to determine subjective minutes of moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA); a subset wore an Actigraph monitor capturing step count and objective MVPA using a PD-specific algorithm. Relationships between subjective and objective measurements were determined using partial correlations controlling for age and disease stage.

Results: Sixty-six subjects completed subjective reporting; median age (interquartile range [IQR]) was 70 (69-74) years and median disease duration (IQR) was 4 (1.5-7.5) years. Age-adjusted median PASE was 135.3. Median daily step count was 3615 (IQR 1772-4870), which was moderately well-correlated with PASE (ρ = 0.56, p = 0.003). Median MVPA was 8.1 min/day (IQR 2.2-23.2), which was not correlated with PASE (ρ = -0.003, p = 0.98).

Conclusions: Physical activity in this cohort of Veterans with PD is low and consists mostly of low-intensity steps rather than MVPA. The symptomatic and disease-modifying potential of lower intensity activity is uncertain. These data emphasize the need for interventions to increase MVPA in PD and the importance of objective monitoring using wearable technology.