Quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease.
BACKGROUND
Health-related quality of life has been increasingly recognized as an important outcome measure for patients with Parkinson's disease because both motor and non-motor symptoms affect patients' functioning and well being.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the quality of life (QoL) of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and to determine the extent of negative impact of disease on various aspects of their lifestyles.


METHODS
A sample of 866 patients with PD, at the mean age of 73.76 +/- 0.25 years (range 46 to 88 years) was studied. We used the specific tool PDQ-39 Bb (a validated Bulgarian version of PDQ-39 Eng). The QoL was assessed in all patients and analyzed by gender and residence (urban-rural). SPSS v11.5 software was used for the statistical analyses. We used descriptive statistics and the Mann-Whitney U test for the comparisons between groups.


RESULTS
Highest average scores in relative points (corresponding to poor QoL) were obtained for the dimensions "mobility" (57.08), "bodily discomfort" (55.68), "activities of daily living" (54.25) and "emotional well-being" (53.70). Women gave significantly more negative assessment of their QoL than men in the aspects "mobility", "emotional well-being", "social support" and "bodily discomfort", and rural residents gave more negative assessment of "mobility", "activities of daily living" and "stigma".


CONCLUSIONS
The study demonstrated that PD had a significantly negative impact on patients' QoL. In some aspects the impact was significantly more aggravating in women and rural residents.
Clinic of Neurology, Department of Neurology, St. George University Hospital, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Dimka R
DR
Hristova
Jeliazko I
JI
Hristov
Nonka G
NG
Mateva
Jannis V
JV
Papathanasiou
D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires