Does the Minimal Detectable Change in the 10-Meter Walk Test and Timed Up and Go Test Differ by Parkinson's Disease Severity?

OBJECTIVE To determine the minimal detectable change (MDC) of the 10-Meter Walk Test (10MWT) and Timed Up and Go test (TUG) across different stages of Parkinson's disease (PD) severity as classified by the Hoehn & Yahr scale (H&Y). DESIGN Cross-sectional observational study with a repeated-measures design. Subjects completed two trials of each test in a single session to assess reliability and MDC95. SETTING Inpatient neuromodulation center at a general hospital. PARTICIPANTS A total of 80 patients with PD admitted to the Center for Neuromodulation, Kurashiki Heisei Hospital, categorized into H&Y stage II (n = 25), III (n = 31), and IV (n = 24). INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) The 10MWT and TUG were conducted twice in the "On" medication state. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and Bland-Altman analyses were used to assess reliability and systematic bias, and MDC95 values were calculated. RESULTS Both tests demonstrated high reliability (ICC1,1 > 0.92. MDC95 values for the 10MWT were 0.7 sec (stage II), 0.9 sec (stage III), and 1.4 sec (stage IV). MDC95 values for the TUG were 0.9 sec (stage II), 1.3 sec (stage III), and 2.7 sec (stage IV), indicating greater variability in advanced stages. CONCLUSIONS The MDC95 values of 10MWT and TUG increase with PD severity, highlighting the need for stage-specific criteria in clinical assessments. Utilizing severity-specific MDC values may improve the accuracy of treatment evaluations and clinical decision-making in patients with PD.

• Publication year

  2026

• Venue

  Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

• Publication date

  2026-01-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.apmr.2026.01.010PMID 41558572
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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