Freezing of Gait Study

We are studying the walking patterns of people with Parkinson’s disease who experience freezing of gait. The goal of the study is to improve our understanding of freezing of gait for developing therapeutic walking aids.

Participant requirements:

•  Diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease
•  Experience freezing of gait at least once a day
•  Be able to walk unassisted (without cane or walking aid) for 25 m
•  Must not be using any wearable or implanted electronic device (e.g., cardiac pacemaker, deep brain stimulation implant)

Participation: Participants would be asked to attend a single data collection session lasting approximately 3 hours, at the University of Ottawa. Participants would be asked to perform multiple walking tasks while walking data is recorded. The walking path is approximately 25 m in length, participants would be asked to walk the path 30 times.

Benefits: Participation in this study would help advance our understanding of freezing during walking, and help in the development of walking assistance devices for people with Parkinson’s disease.

Compensation: Participants will be reimbursed for parking expenses.