Comparison of Ease of Use and Comfort in Fitness Trackers for Participants Impaired by Parkinson's Disease: An exploratory study.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is an incurable, fatal neurodegenerative disease, and only available treatment is to minimize symptoms. Anecdotal evidence suggests whole body workout can help to reduce PD severity; however, it is challenging to quantify its effect on PD. The increased availability of fitness trackers can help in quantifying the effect of whole-body workout on PD. Before using any over the counter fitness tracker, we must study the ease of use of the fitness trackers in PD patients. We interviewed 32 PD patients with six over the counter fitness trackers and determined their perceptions and attitude towards the fitness trackers. Although none of the fitness trackers received perfect scores for ease of use or comfort due to the presence of tremors, two trackers performed significantly better than the others. Further study is warranted to understand the potential for fitness trackers to be used by PD patients.