Table 3. Comparison of clinical outcome measures between patients with (ASYM) and without (SYM) asymmetrical weight bearing or asymmetric balance control, based on the 99 percent CI of weight bearing, the ankle joint or the hip joint contributions of the healthy controls.
| Weight bearing | Ankle joint | Hip joint | |||||||
| ASYMWB | SYMWB | p | ASYMAnk | SYMAnk | p | ASYMHip | SYMHip | p | |
| N | 14 | 6 | 15 | 5 | 16 | 4 | |||
| Age (yrs.) | 63.79 (8.98) | 62.5 (6.97) | 0.74 | 63.9 (8) | 61.8 (9.9) | 0.36 | 63.63 (8.9) | 62.5 (5.8) | 0.84 |
| Women (%) | 36 | 17 | 0.38∼ | 20 | 60 | 0.09∼ | 33 | 50 | 0.33∼ |
| Preferred leg (% Left) | 50 | 33 | 0.27∼ | 47 | 40 | 0.78∼ | 50 | 25 | 0.11∼ |
| Disease duration (yrs.) | 5.29 (3.45) | 4.17 (2.8) | 0.26 | 5.2 (2.5) | 5.8 (5.2) | 0.83 | 4.25 (2.2) | 7.75 (5.5) | 0.25 |
| Freezers (%) | 50 | 33 | 0.49∼ | 47 | 40 | 0.79∼ | 38 | 75 | 0.18∼ |
| H&Y (1 | 2 | 3) | 2 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0.43∼ | 2 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0.67∼ | 2 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0.54∼ |
| MDS-UPDRS III | 31.71 (9.14) | 17.83 (5.91) | 0.004 | 29 (10.4) | 23 (10.3) | 0.36 | 28.81 (10.5) | 22.5 (9.95) | 0.27 |
| PIGD | 3.57 (1.99) | 1.5 (1.76) | 0.02 | 2.93 (1.8) | 3 (3.2) | 0.72 | 3.06 (1.69) | 2.5 (3.7) | 0.25 |
| Prior falls (% with falls) | 50 | 20 | 0.16∼ | 40 | 20 | 0.69∼ | 50 | 0 | 0.07∼ |
| Fear of falling | 4.93 (4.55) | 3.17 (3.13) | 0.43 | 3.73 (2.82) | 6.4 (6.9) | 0.79 | 4.06 (3.6) | 5.75 (6.55) | 0.89 |
| TMT (m/s) | 1.21 (0.22) | 1.29 (0.94) | 0.32 | 1.24 (0.2) | 1.22 (0.18) | 0.82 | 1.23 (0.2) | 1.21 (0.2) | 0.93 |
| TUG (s) | 11.15 (2.83) | 9.25 (1.93) | 0.21 | 11.05 (2.85) | 9.19 (1.65) | 0.19 | 11.07 (2.73) | 8.67 (1.57) | 0.05 |
Data reflect means with the standard deviation (between brackets). N, number of subjects, UPDRS Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale; H&Y Hoehn & Yahr; PIGD; Postural Instability and Gait Difficulty; TMT; Ten Meter walk Test, TUG; Timed-Up-and-go-Test; ASYM = asymmetrical patients. SYM = symmetrical patients.
Due the small sample we used non-parametric tests (Mann Whitney U test) or χ2 tests indicated with (∼).
p values are not corrected for multiple comparisons, but the significance level reduced 0.005 due to Bonferoni correction.
There were no significant differences in clinical outcome measures between patients with and without asymmetrical weight bearing or balance control.