title: Informant Perceptions of the Cause of Activities of Daily Living Difficulties in Parkinson's Disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) can have difficulties with activities of daily living (ADL) that stem from cognitive, motor, or affective manifestations of the disease. Accurately attributing ADL difficulty specifically to cognitive decline is critical when conducting a neuropsychological evaluation of a person with PD. Informant description of ADL performance is frequently used for this purpose, but there has been little work assessing informants' ability to attribute ADL dysfunction to a specific symptom source in PD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty community dwelling individuals with PD completed cognitive, motor, and affective measures. A knowledgeable informant completed an ADL scale that asked about degree and perceived source of difficulty (cognitive, motor, affective) for each task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Informants indicated that motor dysfunction was the most common source of ADL difficulty, but the informants viewed difficulty with certain tasks, such as financial management, as particularly related to cognitive dysfunction. Informant reports of the source of ADL dysfunction (cognitive, motor, affective) were consistent with clinical measures of those specific dysfunctions. ADL dysfunction attributed to cognition specifically (χ(2) = 9.80, p = .01) was higher in those with measurable cognitive impairment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Informant reports of the sources of ADL dysfunction correlate with clinical measures of these symptoms, suggesting that informants may provide useful clinical information about the cause of ADL dysfunction in persons with PD.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Internal Medicine , Baylor Scott & White Health and Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine , Temple , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Jared F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Benge
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , Texas A&M University , College Station , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Balsis
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D010465:Perception
keywords: Activities of daily living; Informants report; Motor dysfunction.; Parkinson’s disease