Wrist-worn sensor offers clearer view of tremor in Parkinson’s
Study finds device provides consistent insights beyond clinic exams
- A wrist-worn sensor reliably tracks Parkinson’s tremor in daily life, offering clearer insight than clinic visits alone.
- The device measures tremor strength, duration, and overall activity, including episodes doctors may not observe.
- Wearable sensors may support better Parkinson’s diagnosis and treatment by revealing symptoms as they occur day to day.
A wrist-worn device may provide a clearer and more consistent picture of tremor in Parkinson’s disease than what can be seen during a single clinic visit or recalled from memory alone, a study has found, adding to evidence that wearable sensors can help track motor symptoms in daily life.
When worn for a few days, Axivity’s AX6 movement sensor, embedded in a wristband, offered “additional insights” into tremor features, especially how long tremor episodes lasted and how strong they were, even in cases where a doctor’s clinic observations did not match what patients reported.
The study, “Added value of a wrist-worn device for assessing tremor in Parkinson’s disease: reliability and validity of tremor evaluation at home,” was published in npj Parkinson’s Disease by researchers at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
Why measuring tremor in Parkinson’s can be challenging
Tremor is one of the hallmark symptoms of Parkinson’s, but it can be difficult to measure accurately. Clinicians usually base their assessments on what they observe during a short clinic visit, while patients rely on recalling their symptoms from daily life. Tremor may not be present during the appointment, and patients may not remember how often or how long episodes occurred.
Wearable devices, such as wrist-worn movement sensors, can continuously record activity throughout daily life, offering a fuller picture of how often tremors occur and how strong they are. In this study, researchers examined how reliable these sensor measurements were when repeated, and how well they aligned with standard clinical and self-reported tremor assessments.
“The limited evidence available suggests that wearables offer greater sensitivity to capture changes in tremor severity, resulting in quicker treatment adaptations and improved quality of care than conventional assessments,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers analyzed data from 195 people with Parkinson’s (median disease duration of 3.4 years) and 24 healthy controls who took part in the Profiling Parkinson’s Disease (ProPark) study, a multicenter observational project in the Netherlands designed to develop detailed profiles of individuals with Parkinson’s.
In 27% of participants, patients’ self-reported tremor frequency or severity did not match what clinicians observed during the exam.
How the wrist-worn sensor captured tremor in daily life
Participants wore the wrist-worn movement sensor for one week. It was placed on the arm most affected by tremor, or on the non-dominant arm for healthy controls and those with symptoms on both sides. The device continuously tracked wrist movements, including movement speed and rotational motion.
After three days of recording, the movement sensor produced highly reliable and repeatable results. Measures of tremor strength (amplitude), tremor duration, and overall tremor activity (volume) closely aligned with clinicians’ observations during the exam.
Tremor volume measured by the device agreed with patients’ own reports, even when clinicians did not observe tremor during the visit. This indicates that a wrist-worn sensor can capture tremor episodes that might otherwise be missed.
Overall, the findings show that wearable sensors can provide accurate, consistent, and detailed insights into Parkinson’s tremor. This may help doctors and patients better understand symptoms as they occur in daily life, supporting both diagnosis and treatment.
“The wearable-based tremor assessment adds information about the amplitude, duration, and volume of [Parkinson’s] tremor severity at a higher resolution compared to self-report and clinical assessment,” the researchers concluded.
About the Author
