Linking clinical variables to health-related quality of life in Parkinson's disease.
OBJECTIVE
Identify the point-in-time relationship between Parkinson's disease (PD) signs and symptoms and measures of health-related quality of life (HRQL).


BACKGROUND
Clinical measures used in PD assessments traditionally emphasize physical signs and symptoms. We hypothesized that these measures would be strongly associated with the physical function dimensions of HRQL that reflect mental symptoms.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study of 193 neurology clinic PD patients employed self-administered in-clinic and take-home questionnaires and in-person clinical examinations and interviews.


RESULTS
The variance explained by PD physical signs and symptoms was substantial for physical function, but only modest for all other HRQL dimensions. Mental symptoms explained a larger proportion of variance than physical symptoms for 12 of the 14 HRQL measures.


CONCLUSIONS
PD patients' well-being, general health perceptions, health satisfaction and overall HRQL are strongly influenced by mental health symptoms and more weakly influenced by physical symptoms. Clinical evaluation of PD patients should include mental health and self-reported HRQL assessment.
Chrischilles
Elizabeth A
EA
Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. e-chrischilles@uiowa.edu
Rubenstein
Linda M
LM
Voelker
Margaret D
MD
Wallace
Robert B
RB
Rodnitzky
Robert L
RL
D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life