Wearable sensors are becoming increasingly more available in Parkinson’s disease and are used to measure motor function. Whether non-motor symptoms (NMS) can also be measured with these wearable sensors remains unclear. We therefore performed a retrospective, exploratory, analysis of 108 patients with a diagnosis of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease enroled in the Non-motor Longitudinal International Study (UKCRN No. 10084) at King’s College Hospital, London, to determine the association between the range and nature of NMS and an accelerometer-based outcome measure of bradykinesia (BKS) and dyskinesia (DKS). NMS were assessed by the validated NMS Scale, and included, e.g., cognition, mood and sleep, and gastrointestinal, urinary and sexual problems. Multiple linear regression modelling was used to identify NMS associated with BKS and DKS. We found that BKS was associated with domains 6 (gastrointestinal tract; p = 0.006) and 8 (sexual function; p = 0.003) of the NMS scale. DKS was associated with domains 3 (mood/cognition; p = 0.016), 4 (perceptual problems; p = 0.025), 6 (gastrointestinal tract; p = 0.029) and 9 (miscellaneous, p = 0.003). In the separate domains, constipation was significantly associated with BKS. Delusions, dysphagia, hyposmia, weight change and hyperhidrosis were identified as significantly associated with DKS. None of the NMSS domains were associated with disease duration (p ≥ 0.08). In conclusion, measures of BKS and DKS were mainly associated with gastrointestinal problems, independent of disease duration, showing the potential for wearable devices to pick up on these symptoms. These exploratory results deserve further exploration, and more research on this topic in the form of comprehensive large-scale studies is needed.

ObjectivesTo determine the association between the range and nature of non-motor symptoms (NMS) in people with Parkinson’s (PwP) and validated Parkinson’s KinetigraphTM (PKG) outcome measures.DesignCross-sectional retrospective study of participants enrolled in the Non-motor Longitudinal International Study (NILS, UKCRN No: 10084) at King’s College Hospital, London.Subjects108 PwP with a PKG recording within 4 months of a NILS assessment were included in the analysis.MethodsPKG is a validated accelerometery-based measure for motor function in PwP, reporting scores for global bradykinesia (BKS) and dyskinesia (DKS). NMS were assessed by the NMS scale (NMSS).ResultsUsing multiple linear regression, BKS was predicted by NMSS domains 6 (gastrointestinal tract; p=0.006) and 8 (sexual function; p=0.003). DKS was predicted by domains 3 (mood/cognition; p=0.016), domain 4 (perceptual problems; p=0.025), domain 6 (gastrointestinal tract; p=0.029) and domain 9 (miscellaneous, p=0.003). In these domains, anxiety, delusions, dysphagia, hyposmia, weight change and hyperhidrosis significantly predicted DKS. In addition, carbidopa dose predicted NMSS total scores (p=0.037), but not total LEDD (p=0.91).ConclusionsIn PwP, measures of BK and DK were mainly associated with gastrointestinal problems, underpinning the importance of gastric absorption of oral medications and constipation and the related motor effects in PwP. Interestingly, carbidopa appears to have a role in non-motor symptoms in PwP, which deserves further investigation.