Research findings by Atsushi Sekimoto, a PhD student at our Graduate School of Yamagata Prefectural University of Health Sciences (supervised by Professor Hiromi Fujii, PhD, OTR), have been published in Volume 28 of the international academic journal, Asian Journal of Human Services.

The paper is titled, “Relationship between the Duration of Leisure Activities at Home and Nonmotor Symptoms among People with Parkinson's Disease”

This cross-sectional study investigated whether the characteristics of non-motor symptoms are associated with the duration of leisure or obligatory activities among home-dwelling individuals with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) classified as Hoehn and Yahr (HY) stage III.
The researchers conducted interviews regarding the duration and content of activities over the past month. The results revealed that the duration of leisure activities was significantly and negatively correlated with the following factors:
•    Movement Disorder Society–Unified PD Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) Part I scores (rs = -0.372, p = 0.043)
•    Depressive mood (rs = -0.387, p = 0.034)
•    Anxiety (rs = -0.439, p = 0.015)
Based on these findings, the authors suggest that depressive mood and anxiety may be closely related to the sustained duration of leisure activities for home-dwelling individuals with HY stage III Parkinson’s Disease.

Publication Details
•    Title: Relationship between the Duration of Leisure Activities at Home and Nonmotor Symptoms among People with Parkinson's Disease
•    Journal: Asian Journal of Human Services, Vol. 28, pp. 195–207, 2025
•    URL: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ajhs/28/0/28_195/_article/-char/en
•    DOI: 10.14391/ajhs.28.195