Systematic Review of Single-Point Wearable Sensor Studies for Parkinson's Gait Assessment

41 studies involving 395 participants with Parkinson's disease and parkinsonisms were systematically reviewed. The review critically appraises the use of single-point magneto-inertial measurement units for gait and Timed Up and Go test assessments. It evaluates study quality, clinical transferability, and frequently reported outcomes like gait speed and step length.

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between reported outcomes like gait speed and step length and study quality ratings to identify robust clinical markers.
• Examine the distribution of study designs (e.g., observational vs. interventional) across the 41 studies to assess evidence gaps.
• Investigate the reporting completeness for sensor placement and acquisition conditions, which were identified as common weaknesses in the 'assessment protocol' domain.
• Compare the frequency of instrumented Timed Up and Go test usage (14 studies) versus straight-line walking (27 studies) across different participant cohorts.

Strengths

• Systematic review of 41 primary studies following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, providing a structured evidence synthesis.
• Includes data from 395 participants with a reported mean age of 66 ± 5.9 years, offering a consolidated clinical sample.
• Applies a customized critical appraisal tool evaluating five specific domains: methodology, clinical aspects, assessment protocol, technical aspects, and clinical transferability.

Limitations

• The dataset is a summary of other studies (21.5 KB Excel file), not raw patient-level data, limiting direct analytical applications.
• Methodological heterogeneity and incomplete reporting in primary studies, especially for clinical aspects and assessment protocols, hinder cross-study comparability.
• Only 12% of the included studies achieved a high-quality rating, indicating a moderate overall quality of the underlying evidence base.

Provenance

Source

Systematic review conducted by author Lorenzo Cavazzuti, sourced from the figshare platform.

Collection Method

Literature search in Medline, CINAHL, Embase, and Scopus following PRISMA 2020 guidelines; data extracted from 41 eligible studies.

Time Range

Review covers studies published up to the search date in January 2025.

Freshness

Literature search conducted up to January 2025, with the dataset last updated in March 2026.