Automated Real-World Video Analysis of Sit-to-Stand Transitions Predicts Parkinson’s Disease Severity

Introduction: Technology holds the potential to track disease progression and response to neuroprotective therapies in Parkinson’s disease (PD). The sit-to-stand (STS) transition is a frequently occurring event which is important to people with PD. The aim of this study was to demonstrate an automatic approach to quantify STS duration and speed using a real-world free-living dataset and look at clinical correlations of the outcomes, including whether STS parameters change when someone withholds PD medications.

Methods: Eighty-five hours of video data were collected from 24 participants staying in pairs for 5-day periods in a naturalistic setting. Skeleton joints were extracted from the video data; the head trajectory was estimated and used to estimate the STS parameters of duration and speed.

Results: 3.14 STS transitions were seen per hour per person on average. Significant correlations were seen between automatic and manual STS duration (Pearson rho − 0.419, p = 0.042) and between automatic STS speed and manual STS duration (Pearson rho − 0.780, p < 0.001). Significant and strong correlations were seen between the gold-standard clinical rating scale scores and both STS duration and STS speed; these correlations were not seen in the STS transitions when the participants were carrying something in their hand(s). Significant differences were seen at the cohort level between control and PD participants’ ON medications’ STS duration (U = 6,263, p = 0.018) and speed (U = 9,965, p < 0.001). At an individual level, only two participants with PD became significantly slower to STS when they were OFF medications; withholding medications did not significantly change STS duration at an individual level in any participant.

Conclusion: We demonstrate a novel approach to automatically quantify and ecologically validate two STS parameters which correlate with gold-standard clinical tools measuring disease severity in PD.