title: Quality of life in a Brazilian sample of patients with Parkinson's disease and their caregivers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor disabilities and increasing dependence on others for daily life activities with consequent impact on patients' and caregivers' quality of life.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was performed in which quality of life was assessed by the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire in 21 patients with Parkinson's disease and their respective caregivers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant differences between patients and caregivers were found in physical (p < 0.001) and psychological (p = 0.002) domains. In the Parkinson's disease group there was a significant inverse correlation between the psychological domain and duration of disease (p = 0.01), as well as between social domain and severity of disease (p = 0.001). There was a positive correlation between physical domain scores and number of people living in the same house (p = 0.02). The only significant finding in the group of caregivers was an inverse correlation between the social domain and the patients' age (p = 0.04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Duration, severity of the disease and the number of people living in the same house were the most important predictors of quality of life of Parkinson's disease patients. The age of the patients was the only significant predictor found in the caregivers' quality of life. In order to complement our findings, further short-form questionnaires should be validated for Brazilian samples of Parkinson's disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical School, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Ramiro Barcelos 2600, 90035-003 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. lonfra@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schestatsky
authors.forename: Vanessa Cassina
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Zanatto
authors.forename: Regina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Margis
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chachamovich
authors.forename: Mateus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reche
authors.forename: Rodrigo Gomes
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Batista
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fricke
authors.forename: Carlos R M
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Rieder
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001938:Brazil; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires