Touchscreen use in people with Parkinson's disease - frequency, cognition and upper limb function.

Objective

Explore daily touchscreen use (e.g., messaging, internet browsing) and performance (e.g., tapping and dragging), and their associations with cognitive ability and upper limb function in people with Parkinson's disease (PWP).

Methods

Thirty-four participants who reported daily touchscreen use completed a touchscreen daily use questionnaire, Touchscreen Assessment Tool, Trail Making Test (TMT) A and B, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Coin Rotation Task (CRT) and the Movement Disorder Society-Unified PD Rating Part II and III (upper limb items).

Results

Messaging, internet browsing, and navigation were the most frequently used applications. A logistic regression model explained 60% of the variance in daily touchscreen use (χ2(4) = 19.89, p < 0.001), with executive function (EF) emerging as the significant predictor. Touchscreen performance was more strongly associated with cognitive ability than motor function. In particular, better keyboard typing was significantly correlated with all cognitive measures, most strongly with EF (r = 0.64, p < 0.001).

Conclusions

These findings suggest that people with PD primarily engage with touchscreens for social communication and that both daily use and performance are closely tied to cognitive ability. Cognitive function should therefore be a central consideration when designing evaluations, accessibility modifications and interventions to support touchscreen use in this population.