P171. The relationship between quantitative parameters of the Timed-up-and-Go phases, and health-related quality of life in Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Introduction Health related quality of life (HRQoL) is widely accepted as the most important factor for patients living with chronic diseases, and therefore as the most important factor to evaluate (success of) treatment. The downside of the parameter is that evaluation is qualitative, imprecise and prone to bias. To overcome these shortcomings, quantitative and objective assessment tools may be useful that have some potential to serve as a kind of “surrogate marker” for HRQoL. The Timed-Up-and-Go-Test (TUG) is a short test which provides information about important movement patterns, i.e. transfer (sit-to-walk, walk-to-sit), walking and turning. The total time needed to perform the TUG has already been shown to be associated with lower HRQoL in a chronic disease (Parkinson’s disease, PD) however, to the best of our knowledge, no study is currently available which investigated sub-phases of the TUG based on quantitative wearable sensors, and their association with HRQoL in a chronic disease. Objective To identify TUG sub-phases quantitatively that are associated with HRQoL. Methods Thirty-seven PD participants (H&Y stage I-III, ‘off’ state) performed an instrumented TUG (Dynaport®, McRoberts BV, The Netherlands) in four conditions (convenient and fast speed, turning to the left and to the right). The PD Questionnaire 39 (PDQ-39) was used to assess HRQoL. Pearson’s correlation analyses were performed to identify correlations between TUG sub-phases and HRQoL. Results TUG total time correlated well with the PDQ-39 measures. This observation was largely independent of different assessment conditions. From all sub-phases investigated, the walking forth time had the strongest association with the HRQoL questionnaire, followed by the turning phases. Again, these associations were widely independent of the assessment condition. Transfer times did only weakly or even not correlate with the HRQoL measures. Details are provided in Table 1 . Discussion, conclusion Our data confirm previous findings of a relatively strong association of TUG total time with HRQoL in PD. The duration of sub-phases seem not relevantly add to this finding. Interestingly, the sit-to-walk and walk-to-sit times correlated least with the PDQ-39. As the proper execution of transfers is a relevant prerequisite for performing daily activities, this result needs further investigation. Future work – also in our group – will therefore focus on more detailed analysis of sub-phases, considering qualitative aspects of the specific movements.