Parkinson’s disease is a progressive and debilitating neurodegenerative disease which ranks the second most common after Alzheimer disease, affecting 1-2% of people aged 60ys or above with a heavy burden on patient, family, and the society. By the time that typical motor symptoms appear, approximately over 50% of the neurons in the substantia nigra have lost. Thus, all the current therapies are too late to reverse the disease progression. It is imperative to identify patients at the prodromal or very early stage when majority of the substantia nigra neurons are not significantly affected. The subjects at the prodromal stage are usually harbouring a series of non-motor features including constipation, mood problems, sleep disturbance, physical inactivity, and olfaction features, which can be used for risk calculation.

This project aims to develop a user-friendly and highly engaging App on smartphone for elderly to understand and estimate their probability risk for prodromal Parkinson's disease when they are still free of motor dysfunctions. In addition, this App will provide useful information to promote a better and healthier lifestyle (such as physical activity, light exposure, diet) in modifying the risk for Parkinson’s disease. Furthermore, the App will update the evidence-based advice of latest published intervention strategies for Parkinson's disease to equip the users with advanced and updated information about useful and effective strategies for Parkinson’s disease. Thus, the older adult/elderly who are at risk for future development of prodromal Parkinson's disease and their families will greatly benefit from this project.

This project will develop an easy-access smartphone App that will not only introduce prodromal biomarkers of Parkinson’s disease, but also screen for prodromal features among the older adults and elderly in the community, and provide potential education and suggestions for early interventions. This project will transfer the up-to-date research findings to the general population and will greatly benefit the well-being of the subjects in the community.

200-300 at-risk people at 50 years old or above

2021

Healthcare, MedTech