The prevalence of freezing of gait in Parkinson’s disease and in patients with different disease durations and severities

BACKGROUND: The prevalence rates of freezing of gait (FOG) in Parkinson’s disease (PD) vary widely, ranging from 14.0 to 55.1%. Our aim is to calculate the overall prevalence of FOG in all PD patients with different disease durations and severities. METHODS: Using Medline/PubMed/Embase, we carried out a systematic literature search for studies reporting the PD and clinically relevant FOG. RESULTS: After primary screening, a total of 35 studies were identified and further analyzed for inclusion into the analysis, and 29 studies fulfilled the quality criteria and included in this meta-analysis. The overall prevalence of FOG in PD was 39.9% (95% CI 35.3-44.5%). The FOG identified by the freezing of gait questionnaire item 3 may be more prevalent (43.8%, 95% CI 38.5-49.1%) than the FOG identified by the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale item 14 (36.0%, 95% CI 29.0-43.1%). Disease duration and severity are both the clinical features associated with the FOG. The highest FOG prevalence rate in PD patients was seen in patients with disease durations ≥ 10 years, at 70.8%, followed that of PD patients with disease durations ≥ 5 years (53.3%), and PD patients with disease durations < 5 years (22.4%). FOG presented in 28.4% of PD patients with Hoehn and Yahr staging (H&Y) score ≤ 2.5, and in 68.4% of PD patients with H&Y score ≥ 2.5. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis confirms that the prevalence of FOG in PD is considerable, and highlights the need for accurate identification of FOG in PD.