Objective:

To validate the use of wearable sensors in monitoring physical activity and function in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).

Background:

Digital health technologies can offer objective and measurable insights into diseases right from participants' homes. While wearable sensors have been successfully used to monitor Parkinson's disease activity, there have been few studies in individuals with PSP. 

Design/Methods:

To date the study has recruited 24 individuals with PSP who are being followed for up to 12 months. Every three months, participants complete the PSP Rating Scale. Participants are given a PAMSys™ pendant sensor (BioSensics LLC, Newton MA, USA) to wear for 7 consecutive days every 3 months. The PAMSys sensors measure over 40 different physical activity parameters, including various walking metrics and falls tracked over time. We employed repeated measures correlations to assess the longitudinal correlation between clinical scores and sensor-derived measures.

Results:

The interim analysis of data collected from the first 15 subjects shows a compliance of 100% in wearing the PAMSys sensor for more than 12 hours a day. Over time, increases in the 95th percentile of variability in step duration were associated with higher disease severity as measured by the modified PSPRS-21 (r = 0.45, p = 0.021).  Additionally, the median steps per walking bout was negatively correlated with disease severity (r = -0.38, p = 0.055), indicating that patients tend to take fewer steps on average as their symptoms worsened. 

Conclusions:

The findings from this study demonstrate the feasibility of using wearable devices to monitor physical activity and falls in individuals with PSP. The observed correlations between sensor-derived metrics and disease severity provide valuable insights into the functional impairments associated with PSP. These results underscore the potential of digital health technologies in enhancing patient monitoring and guiding therapeutic interventions.