A simple movement test that tracks how quickly a person turns while walking could help identify Parkinson’s disease almost nine years before diagnosis, according to new research by German neurologists.
Parkinson’s is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that damages parts of the brain over time, often years before symptoms such as tremors and muscle stiffness appear. Detecting the disease early has long been a challenge, but the new study suggests that subtle walking changes—especially while turning—could serve as an early warning sign.
Published in the journal Annals of Neurology, the study found that people who turned more slowly and at wider angles while walking were significantly more likely to develop Parkinson’s within the next decade.
Researchers from the University of Tübingen tracked 924 adults over age 50 who showed no major movement, hearing, or vision problems. Participants were asked to walk along a 20-meter hallway for one minute while wearing a motion sensor on their lower back. Over a 10-year period, 23 participants were later diagnosed with Parkinson’s—on average about five years after their initial test.
Using machine learning to analyse the data, the researchers were able to identify 60% of future Parkinson’s cases based on early movement patterns alone. On average, those who later developed the disease began turning more slowly up to 8.8 years before diagnosis.
The researchers believe this slower, wider turning could reflect early balance and stability issues. “A decline in postural stability may subconsciously encourage patients to turn more slowly and take a wider route for safety,” they noted.
The study also found that men were four times more likely than women to develop Parkinson’s, and that each additional year of age increased the risk by 15%.
Although this is the first long-term study to assess turning movements as a predictor of Parkinson’s, researchers caution that more work is needed. They plan to expand the research with larger sample sizes and additional motion measures to improve accuracy.
Currently, Parkinson’s affects about 153,000 people in the UK and roughly half a million in the US. The disease has no definitive test, and more than a quarter of patients are initially misdiagnosed.
The researchers say that wearable movement sensors—combined with predictive algorithms—could one day make large-scale early screening for Parkinson’s both practical and affordable.
