[PE-2-4] Impaired kinesthetic sensitivity and manual dexterity for people with early stage Parkinson’s disease
Background: Previous studies have indicated that people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) have impaired kinesthesia and hand function; however, no study examined the two abilities at the same time and the correlation between the kinesthesia and manual dexterity was unknown for people with early stage PD (PwEPD)(Hoehn & Yahr stage I~II). If we can gain further understanding of deficits for PwEPD, we could design and provide the potential interventions for PwEPD to enhance the function for PwEPD. Purposes: The purpose of this study was to investigate the kinesthetic sensitivity and manual dexterity, and the correlation between them for PwEPD. Methods: 71 healthy old adults (the control group)(age: 60.89±6.34years, 16 males and 55 females) and 29 PwEPD (age: 65.00±5.92 years, 18 males and 11 females) were recruited for this study. For kinesthetic sensitivity, position sense at the wrist joint was measured including unilateral joint position matching task (Uni-JPMT) and bilateral joint position matching (Bi-JPMT). The Purdue Pegboard Test (PPT) and the Box and Block Test (BBT) were used to measure the manual dexterity. The study was approved by the Chang Gung Memorial Foundation (IRB no: 1812170055). Results: For Uni-JPMT, the absolute error was 4.00±2.85 and 4.30±2.59 in the control group and PwEPD respectively. For Bi-JPMT, the absolute error was 6.91±3.00 and 6.63±2.86 in the control group and PwEPD respectively. For PPT, the scores were 16.22±1.81, 15.22±1.93, 12.45±2.82 and 34.88±5.94 for the right hand, left hand, bilateral and assembly tasks respectively in the control group. The PPT scores were 11.17±2.04, 10.69±2.38, 8.66±1.91 and 19.76±6.43 for the right hand, left hand, bilateral and assembly tasks respectively for PwEPD. For the right hand and left hand BBT scores, the scores were 73.89±6.25 and 71.53±6.49 in the control group, and 53.00±8.60 and 51.97±7.04 in PwEPD. The significant group difference was found in PPT and BBT. The Pearson correlation coefficients between kinesthetic sensitivity and manual dexterity ranged between -0.12~0.56 in the control group and -0.13~0.31 in the PwEPD, and no significant correlation was found in both groups. Conclusion: Current findings indicated that manual dexterity was significant impaired and the kinesthetic sensitivity was reduced without significant difference in PwEPD. When designing the early intervention protocols for PwEPD, the perceptual and motor deficits should be considered for improving daily functions for PwEPD.