title: Bedside cognitive assessments and falls risk in Parkinson's disease.
abstract: Cognitive deficits may contribute to falls in Parkinson's disease (PD) and these deficits may be risk factors for falls. However, their association with falls has been generally studied in patients with continuous gait problems. There have been few studies in PD patients without postural instability. In addition, the effectiveness of various simple bedside cognitive tests in predicting falls has not been established. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of three bedside cognitive tests in consecutive patients with PD without postural instability. Of the 119 patients, 39 experienced falls during the follow-up period. Of the bedside cognitive assessment methods examined, only the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score was significantly lower in the group of fallers than in the group of non-fallers. This result suggests that the MoCA is effective as a bedside test for evaluating the risk of falls.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Joong-Seok
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Wooyoung
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: Jin Whan
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Jin Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Hee-Tae
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000978:Antiparkinson Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003071:Cognition; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012306:Risk
chemical_list: D000978:Antiparkinson Agents