A researcher will contact identified participants to explain the study further and provide the approved patient information sheet (PIS, via post or email - subject to the potential participant's preference). If after reading the information the potential participant is agreeable, arrangements will be made to book a suitable date and time to visit the Clinical Gait Laboratory, Coach Lane Campus, Northumbria University. Arrangements will be made to ensure the participant has clarity on how s/he can attend the Lab e.g., mode of transport and accessibility.
Upon attending the gait lab informed written consent procedures will be undertaken, then participants (n=60) will be required to answer some demographic questions, such as education level, falls history and activity level. They they will complete pen and paper based clinical assessments such as the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating scale (UPDRS), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I), Falls History Questionnaire, International Physical Activity Questionnaire and Physical Activity questionnaire for Elderly.
Upon completion of the above pen-and-paper tasks, all participants will engage in walking/gait-based tests that assess the effectiveness of a personalised auditory cueing on their gait. All assessments will take place at the Coach Lane Clinical Gait Lab, Northumbria University. During the session, all participants will be asked to wear a smartphone on their person (lower-back via belt attachment), as well as a pair of headphones over their ears and a wearable sensor on each of their feet (the latter are commercial reference standard wearables will be worn on the feet as a gold standard comparison to verify gait data from the smartphone).
Participants will then be asked to perform a series of forward walks around a 25m loop for 1 minute while trying to match their steps to the metronome and musical beats. Walk #1 will determine baseline stepping cadence for each participant. During walks #2-#4 the participant will listen to metronome and musical beats at a +10% increase on the cadence measured during walk #1. After walks #2 and #3, participants will (i) count backwards in their head from 30 to 0 in increments of 1 to disengage psychological responses evoked by each cueing modality and minimize any carryover effects and (ii) perform a 1 min walk with no cue at usual pace.
Specifically, walks and wash-out are:
- Walk 1: Walk for 1-minute at usual pace to determine baseline gait cadence (listening to no sound or no music),
>> No washout,
- Walk 2: Walk for 1-minute with metronome cueing set at +10% baseline cadence,
>> Washout (count backwards from 30 to 0 in increments of 1 + 1min walk no cue),
- Walk 3: Walk for 1-minute with instrumental music cueing set at +10% baseline cadence,
>> Washout (count backwards from 30 to 0 in increments of 1 + 1min walk no cue),
- Walk 4: Walk for 1-minute with vocal music cueing set at +10% baseline cadence.
After the walks, all participants will be asked to answer some questions in the form of a semi-structured interview to explore their experiences of the personalised auditory cueing, administered via a smartphone (System Usability Scale). Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index will be used to examine participants' musical experience and skills, and provide valuable insights into the potential of the personalised auditory cueing approach to enhance gait in PwPD. Total time for lab participation is approx 1-hour. The immediate impact of personalised auditory cueing on gait performance in participants will be evaluated based on the collected data and participants' experiences.
