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. 2019 Jun 23;16(12):2216.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph16122216.

Falls in Parkinson's Disease Subtypes: Risk Factors, Locations and Circumstances

Paulo H S Pelicioni  1 , Jasmine C Menant  2 , Mark D Latt  3 , Stephen R Lord  4
Affiliations

Falls in Parkinson's Disease Subtypes: Risk Factors, Locations and Circumstances

Paulo H S Pelicioni et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

People with Parkinson's disease (PD) can be classified into those with postural instability and gait difficulty (PIGD subtype) and those manifesting tremor as the main symptoms (non-PIGD subtype). In a prospective cohort study of 113 people with PD we aimed to contrast fall rates and circumstances as well as a range of disease-related, clinical, and functional measures between the PD subtypes. Compared with non-PIGD participants, PIGD participants were significantly more likely to suffer more falls overall as well as more falls due to freezing of gait, balance-related falls and falls at home. The PIGD group also performed significantly worse in a range of fall-related clinical and functional measures including general cognitive status, executive function, quadriceps muscle strength, postural sway and the timed up and go test. These findings document the extent to which people with the PIGD subtype are at increased risk of falls, the circumstances in which they fall and their disease-related, clinical and functional impairments.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; accidental falls; executive function; freezing of gait; postural balance; subtypes.

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Conflict of interest statement

S.R.L. declares that the physiological profile assessment (NeuRA FallScreen) is commercially available through neuroscience Research Australia. The other authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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