Wearable sensors may help identify multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who are more likely to experience worsening disability and loss of brain volume, according to research published on March 4, 2026. Neurology®Medical Journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The study found that people who had changes in their activity patterns were more likely to have worsening disorders or a reduction in brain volume than people whose patterns did not change much or at all.
This study does not prove that changes in activity lead to progression of MS. Just show the relevance.
Wearable sensors measure how much light, moderate, or vigorous physical activity people engage in during the day, how much time they spend sitting or being inactive, and their circadian rhythms, or sleep-wake patterns.
Timely identification of patients at risk for disease progression is essential to reducing long-term disability, but current tests for measuring MS disability are not designed to detect small changes. A relatively inexpensive and easily accessible device worn on the wrist could identify early changes in the disease. ”
Kathryn C. Fitzgerald, PhD, MS, study author and assistant professor of neurology, Johns Hopkins University
The study involved 238 MS patients with an average age of 55 years and who had been living with MS for an average of 13 years. At the start of the study, they had an average disability level of 3 on the Expanded Disability Status Scale, a measure of disability in MS. This indicates that the person has no problems walking, but has moderate impairment in one of eight functional systems, or mild impairment in three or four areas, such as muscle weakness, balance problems, or problems with thinking or memory.
The subjects had no other serious health problems that might affect their physical activity and had not had an MS relapse within 6 months before the study.
Participants wore the device on their wrist 24 hours a day to measure their activity levels for two weeks. They repeated this every three months for an average of three years. They were also examined every six months to check their level of disability. They underwent brain scans at the start of the study and two years later to look for changes in their brains.
During the study period, 120 people developed disease progression. People who had decreased daytime activity levels were more likely to have progressive disease. People whose activity levels decreased during the first half of the day were about 20% more likely to have disease progression than those whose activity levels did not decrease.
People who had lower activity levels in the morning between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. were more likely to have a decrease in brain volume. For every standard deviation decrease in activity level, total brain volume decreased by 0.18%, deep gray matter decreased by 0.34%, and the volume of the thalamic region of the brain decreased by 0.35%.
“Further research is needed to confirm these findings, but it is interesting to think that by using an easily accessible device, we can predict who is at risk of worsening the disease and potentially prevent those changes,” Mowry said. “Detecting small changes could also help speed up research into new treatments.”
A limitation of this study is that it did not include a group of people who do not have MS, which would help researchers understand how activity levels change as part of normal aging. Also, the participants were relatively older and had more disabilities, so the results may not apply to younger MS patients or people with fewer disabilities.
sauce:
American Academy of Neurology
Reference magazines:
Fitzgerald, K.C. Others. (2026). Association between changes in activity patterns and brain atrophy and disability progression in multiple sclerosis patients. Neurology. DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000214678. https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000214678.
