Variations in rest-activity rhythm are associated with clinically measured disease severity in Parkinson's disease

The continuous, longitudinal nature of accelerometry monitoring is well-suited to capturing the regular 24-hour oscillations in human activity across the day, the cumulative effect of our circadian rhythm and behavior. Disruption of the circadian rhythm in turn disrupts rest-activity rhythms. Although circadian disruption is a major feature of Parkinson's disease (PD), rest-activity rhythms and their relationship with disease severity have not been well characterized in PD. 13 PD participants (Hoehn & Yahr Stage [HY significant associations between MDS-UPDRS scores and activity levels were observed only in the unadjusted model. These findings demonstrate that continuous actigraphy is capable of detecting rest-activity disruption in PD, and provides preliminary evidence that rest-activity rhythms are associated with motor symptom severity and H&Y Stage.