Association of real life postural transitions kinematics with fatigue in neurodegenerative and immune diseases
Robbin Romijnders, Arash Atrsaei, Rana Zia Ur Rehman, Lea Strehlow, Jèrôme Massoud, Chloe Hinchliffe, Victoria Macrae, Kirsten Emmert, Ralf Reilmann, C. Janneke van der Woude, Geert Van Gassen, Frédéric Baribaud, Teemu Ahmaniemi, Meenakshi Chatterjee, Bruno Kusznir Vitturi, Clémence Pinaud, Jérôme Kalifa, Stefan Avey, Wan‐Fai Ng, Clint Hansen, Nikolay V. Manyakov, Walter Maetzler
Abstract
Fatigue is prevalent in immune-mediated inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases, yet its assessment relies largely on patient-reported outcomes, which capture perception but not fluctuations over time. Wearable sensors, like inertial measurement units (IMUs), offer a way to monitor daily activities and evaluate functional capacity. This study investigates the relationship between sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit transitions and self-reported physical and mental fatigue in participants with Parkinson's, Huntington's, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, primary Sjögren's syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. Over 4 weeks, participants wore an IMU and reported fatigue levels four times daily. Using mixed-effects models, associations were identified between fatigue and specific kinematic features, such as 5th and 95th percentiles of sit-to-stand performance, suggesting that fatigue alters the control and effort of movement. These kinematic features show promise as indicators for fatigue in these patient populations.