Evaluation of health related quality of life in patients with Parkinsons disease

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the socio-demographic and clinical feature of patients with Parkinson’s disease, their health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and the relationship between these.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty Hospital, and Ministry of Health, Taksim and Haseki Education and Research Hospitals in Istanbul, Turkey. The sample consisted of 80 Parkinson’s disease patients who attended the Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Outpatient Clinics between March and July2006. Data were collected using the questionnaire form, which included socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, the Hoehn and Yahr clinical staging scale, the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale(UPDRS), and the Nottingham Health Profile.

RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 67.5 +/-8.76 years, 62.5% were males, and approximately47.5% were in stage one of Parkinson’s disease. The highest mean score on the UPDRS was for the"motor function" part (11.62 +/- 7.45); the quality of life dimensions of, in particular, “energy” (69.79 +/-21.17), “physical movement” (44.95 +/- 24.23), “sleep”(36.36 +/- 31.96), and “emotional reactions” (35.01 +/-31.55) were affected.

CONCLUSION: This study indicates that patients with Parkinson’s disease who experienced the most problems in mobilizing, had an increase in their scores on theUPDRS with the advancing stage of the disease, and their HRQoL was also negatively affected. Studies such as this one have the potential to improve the quality of individualized care.