Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of cueing device using visual , auditory and somatosensory stimuli during walking in Parkinsons disease patients.Cueing device is developed for this study. This device consists of 3 parts; Light sound and vibration parts. All parts can work separately. A laser with a switch projecting the transverse line by using fiber optic is used for the visual part. Both sound and vibration generated a rhythm by using microcontroller at fix frequency 100 beats/min are used for auditory and somatosensory parts. 19 Subjects were asked to walk along 10m walkway in their own normal speed with 8 trials. Each trial was done 3 times. 8 trials were performed by following this order: (1) Baseline, (2) Visual cue,(3) Auditory cue,(4) Somatosensory cue,(5) Visual and Auditory cue, (6) Visual and Somatosensory cue,(7) Auditory and Somatosensory cue, and (8) Visual 1 Auditory and Somatosensory cue.RS footscan was used to collect gait parameters; walking speed, stride length, cadence and double support time. The main finding is that all 3 cues (visual, auditory and somatosensory) with 7 trials compared with baseline significantly increased walking speed, stride length and cadence (p<0.05). In addition, all cues also significantly decreased double support time (p<0.05). In conclusion, all cues can improve gait of Parkinson's disease patients. However this is a short-term study, long-term study with more patients need to be done in the future.