Goalkeeper game: a new assessment instrument in neurology showed higher predictive power than moca for gait performance in people with parkinson’s disease

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate the use of the Goalkeeper Game (GG) to assess gait automaticity decline under dual task conditions in people with Parkinsons disease (PPD) and compare its predictive power with the one of the MoCA test.\n\nMaterials and Methods74 PPD (H&Y stages: 23 in stage 1; 31 in stage 2; 20 in stage 3), without dementia (MoCA cut-off 23), tested in ON period with dopaminergic medication were submitted to single individual cognitive/motor evaluation sessions. The tests applied were: MoCA, GG, dynamic gait index (DGI) task and timed up and go test (TUG) under single and dual-task (DT) conditions. GG test resulted in 9 measures extracted via a statistical model. The predictive power of the GG measures and the MoCA score with respect to gait performance, as assessed by DGI and DT-TUG, were compared.\n\nResultsThe predictive models based on GG measures and MoCA score obtained, respectively, sensitivities of 65% and 56% for DGI scores and 59% and 57% for DT-TUG cost at a 50% specificity. GG application proved to be feasible and aroused more motivation in PPDs than MoCa.\n\nConclusionGG, a friendly and ludic game, was able to reach a good power of gait performance prediction in people at initial and intermediate stages of PD evolution.