Correlation between freezing of gait and fear of fall in patients with Parkinson Disease

Abstract

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a degenerative movement disorder characterized by the presence of Lewy bodies in the midbrain and the loss of dopamine producing neurons in the substantia nigra. PD presents with a wide range of symptoms, encompassing both motor or non-motor aspects.

Objective: To assess the relationship between gait freezing and fear of falling in individuals diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Methods: A cross-sectional study having ethical approval number LCPT/DPT/18/804 was conducted on 72 PD patients at Stage III (Hoehn & Yahr), aged between 55 to 75 years, using convenient non-probability sampling. Participants were recruited from multiple hospitals in Lahore, while patients with comorbidities, cognitive dysfunction and secondary Parkinsonism were excluded. Gait freezing was assessed using Freezing of Gait Questionnaire (FOG-Q), with a validity of 0.96 and reliability 0.95; whereas, fear of falling was evaluated using Fall Efficacy Scale- International (FES-I), which has a validity of 0.84 and reliability 0.95 among PD patients. The duration of study was 6 months from June 2022 to Jan 2023.

Results: Among the 72 patients, 42 individuals (58.3%) were male, while 30 individuals (41.7%) were female. Mean age of study subjects was 62.09±5.93 years. The results of the study showed that freezing of gait and fear of fall were moderately positively correlated, with the correlation coefficient of r= 0.611 and a p-value of < 0.001.

Conclusion: Moderate Correlation was reported between gait freezing and fear of falling in individuals diagnosed with third stage of Parkinson’s disease.