Gait in Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common movement disorders, affecting approximately 1 million Americans (estimates range between 4 and 6.5 million people worldwide) and about 1% of older adults. In the US alone, 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. PD is a chronic and progressive neurological disorder that results in tremor, rigidity, slowness, and postural instability. A disturbed gait is a common, debilitating symptom; patients with severe gait disturbances are prone to falls and may lose their functional independence. This database contains measures of gait from 93 patients with idiopathic PD (mean age: 66.3 years; 63% men), and 73 healthy controls (mean age: 66.3 years; 55% men). The database includes the vertical ground reaction force records of subjects as they walked at their usual, self-selected pace for approximately 2 minutes on level ground. Underneath each foot were 8 sensors (Ultraflex Computer Dyno Graphy, Infotronic Inc.) that measure force (in Newtons) as a function of time. The output of each of these 16 sensors has been digitized and recorded at 100 samples per second, and the records also include two signals that reflect the sum of the 8 sensor outputs for each foot.