title: Quality-of-life perception by Parkinson's disease patients and caregivers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The quality-of-life (QoL) perception by Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and their caregivers (CG) has not been studied in depth.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine patient/proxy agreements on the PD QoL Questionnaire (PDQ-39), the Scale of Quality of Life of Care-Givers (SQLC) and the Multidimensional Caregiver Strain Index (MCSI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with PD and their CG completed the above-mentioned questionnaires about themselves and each other. The intraclass correlations between their scores (paired t test) were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twelve patient-CG pairs were studied. Agreements for QoL items were strong and comparable for the total scores of the PDQ-39, SQLC and MCSI questionnaires (75.4% ± 14%; 78.1% ± 14.1% and 78.2% ± 14.3%, respectively). Agreements ranged from moderate to strong (0.57-0.88, P≤.05) for the patients' physical condition (PDQ-39 items 3, 5, 6, 8, 12-15, 23, 24, 35), mental concentration (item 31) and depression (item 17). Disagreements were apparent in 20%-25% of the pairs and were particularly significant for PDQ-39 items #33 and #25 (embarrassment of patients in public and distressing dreams or hallucinations), in which the CG gave higher scores than the patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Agreements between patients with PD and CG were generally good for most, but not all, of the PDQ-39, SQLC and MCSI domains.
authors.affiliation: Movement Disorders Unit, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.|Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Balash
authors.affiliation: Movement Disorders Unit, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.|Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Korczyn
authors.affiliation: Movement Disorders Unit, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Knaani
authors.affiliation: Movement Disorders Unit, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Migirov
authors.affiliation: Movement Disorders Unit, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.|Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.|Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gurevich
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D010465:Perception; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Parkinson's disease; agreement; caregiver's burden; quality of life