Measuring the Lifespace of People With Parkinson’s Disease Using Smartphones: Proof of Principle

Abstract

BackgroundLifespace is a multidimensional construct that describes the geographic area in which a person lives and conducts their activities, and reflects mobility, health, and well-being. Traditionally, it has been measured by asking older people to self-report the length and frequency of trips taken and assistance required. Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors on smartphones have been used to measure Lifespace of older people, but not with people with Parkinson’s disease (PD).ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to investigate whether GPS data collected via smartphones could be used to indicate the Lifespace of people with PD.MethodsThe dataset was supplied via the Michael J Fox Foundation Data Challenge and included 9 people with PD and 7 approximately matched controls. Participants carried smartphones with GPS sensors over two months. Data analysis compared the PD group and the control group. The impact of symptom severity on Lifespace was also investigated.ResultsVisualization methods for comparing Lifespace were developed including scatterplots and heatmaps. Lifespace metrics for comparison included average daily distance, percentage of time spent at home, and number of trips into the community. There were no significant differences between the PD and the control groups on Lifespace metrics. Visual representations of Lifespace were organized based on the self-reported severity of symptoms, suggesting a trend of decreasing Lifespace with increasing PD symptoms.ConclusionsLifespace measured by GPS-enabled smartphones may be a useful concept to measure the progression of PD and the impact of various therapies and rehabilitation programs. Directions for future use of GPS-based Lifespace are provided.

Systematic Review Looking at the Use of Technology to Measure Free-Living Symptom and Activity Outcomes in Parkinson’s Disease in the Home or a Home-like Environment

“…Where the study duration was specified, the majority of the studies included in this review described testing of their sensors/technology over two weeks or less, however 10 studies detailed longer period of study time of up to a year [32,34,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. Data from sensing technology was collected on more than one occasion by three studies.…”

“…Given the early nature of this pilot work there was no validation/clinimetric testing documented. The metric of 'lifespace', a phrase given to the number of trips outside a home of > 500 metres, the length of distance travelled and approximate location to which travelled, was measured by Liddle et al [43] using a single Global Positioning System within an Android smartphone. No validation or clinimetric testing was mentioned.…”

Family members’ narratives of lifespace: Mapping changes before and after a brain injury causing driving disruption

“…However, this issue has not been empirically investigated. In addition, the impact of caregiving on family members’ lifespace had received lesser attention in the literature, with most research focussed on the individual's lifespace, such as that of healthy older adults (Schenk et al ., ), and adults with specific health conditions such as Parkinson's disease (Liddle et al ., ), Alzheimer's disease (Tung et al ., ), cognitive impairment (Tsutsumimoto et al ., ), reduced kidney function (Bowling et al ., ) or adults with specific needs such as those who use a wheelchair (Sakakibara, Miller, Eng, Backman & Routhier, ). There is only one study, to the best of our knowledge that reported family members of people with Parkinson's disease had reduced participation in leisure activities, and consequently a reduced lifespace (Lökk, ).…”

“…Lifespace is a measure of a person's spatial mobility or the geographical space in which activities are conducted (Schenk et al, 2011). Lifespace has associations with a person's wellbeing and quality of life (Aberg, 2008;Liddle et al, 2014), social interaction (Schenk et al, 2011), level of depression (Polku et al, 2014) and perceived control (Sartori et al, 2012). Studies have demonstrated that a restriction in lifespace affects quality of life as individuals surrender valued roles and reduce their participation in activities (Rantanen, Portegijs, Viljanen & Eronen, 2012;Xue, Fried, Glass, Laffan & Chaves, 2008).…”

Mobile health and Parkinson: what is the future?

“…Keränen and Liikkanen’s study5 used Short Message Service reminders as a solution to this problem, which showed effective response to adherence among PD patients including complicated cases. In another use of mobile phones, Liddle et al6 used Global Positioning System sensors on smartphones to calculate the Lifespace (geographic area in which a person lives and conducts their activities, and reflects mobility, health and well-being) of PD patients. The idea was to measure the progression and impact of PD among the patients by having an idea of their surroundings.…”