Developing Personalized Medicine Strategies to Increase Physical Activity in Parkinson s Disease (PD) Through Digital Health Technology
Abstract
Physical activity and exercise have the potential to transform Parkinson s disease (PD). This application will target the digital health technologies focus area of the 2020 CDMRP Neurotoxin Exposure Treatment Parkinson s (NETP) program to develop novel and personalized interventions to increase physical activity in patients with PD. PD is a common, progressive, and currently incurable neurodegenerative disease. Current treatments based on medications like Sinemet that replace dopamine are the mainstay of PD management but are invariably associated with motor and non-motor complications. Therefore, non-pharmacologic lifestyle modifications, including exercise, are of great interest. The symptomatic benefits of many different types of exercise for PD are indisputable and some evidence suggests that exercise could be a disease-modifying therapy that delays onset and/or slows progression. The benefits of exercise have mostly been observed in short, monitored clinical trials with directly supervised exercise programs. Despite evidence of the efficacy of exercise, physical activity levels of patients with PD in the community are typically low. Strategies that can increase physical activity in real-life settings levels represent a major therapeutic opportunity and unmet need in PD research. The proposed studies will develop new approaches that (1) use gamification, i.e., applying rules of games like point scoring, achieving silver, gold or platinum levels and competition, to overcome barriers to physical activity in PD; (2) identify individual characteristics of PD patients that limit or enhance response to gamification interventions; (3) use readily and commercially available (including Fitbits) digital health technologies, a focus area of the 2020 CDMRP NETP, to perform all recruitment, enrollment, intervention, assessment, and analysis remotely, enabling a touchless study at a time when COVID-19 has transformed the way in which clinical research can be done. All of the technologies used in the proposed study are currently commercially available, and gamification interventions to increase physical activity will be immediately relevant to nearly all patients with PD. Future clinical trials can further refine personalized medicine approaches that tailor interventions for increasing physical activity to individual needs.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Dec 05, 2021
- Source ID
- W81XWH2110828
Entities
People
- James Morley
Organizations
- United States Army