Psychometric characteristics of PIMS—Compared to PDQ-39 and PDQL—To evaluate quality of life in Parkinson's disease patients: Validation in Spanish (Ecuadorian style)

Is PDQ-39 a reliable measure of quality of life of patients at advanced stages of Parkinson's disease considered for Deep Brain Stimulation

Purpose

Parkinson's disease (PD) significantly impedes, especially at its advanced stages, the health-related quality of life (QoL) of patients. The Parkinson's disease questionnaire (PDQ-39) is a widely-used measure assessing the impact of the disease on the patients' QoL. To date, the reliability of PDQ-39 has not been selectively evaluated for patients at a particular delineated stage of the PD progression. Against this backdrop, the study aimed firstly to evaluate comprehensively the internal consistency reliability of PDQ-39 and the constituent scales specifically for patients at the advanced stages of PD who were candidates for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery, and secondly, to compare the Cronbach's alpha coefficients with those reported in other studies conducted with patients across all stages of the PD progression.

Methods

The sample included 36 Bulgarian patients (29 men and 7 women) at advanced stages of PD (Hoehn and Yahr stage 4), PD duration, M = 11.06, SD = 3.50). The internal consistency reliability of the questionnaire and the constituent scales was assessed using three criteria: Cronbach's alpha coefficients, inter-item and item-total correlations.

Results

The internal consistency reliability indicators were satisfactory for the entire instrument and for most of the scales and similar to those reported in previous studies. None of the scales had low internal consistency reliability results across the three criteria. Except for the Communication scale, seven of the eight scales had Cronbach's alpha values that were satisfactory or marginally below the cut off score. All scales had acceptable inter-item correlations. Three of the scales (Emotional Well-Being, Cognition and Communication) contained more than one item with non-satisfactory item-total correlations. With minor exceptions, the removal of the items with low item-total correlations either did not improve or improved marginally or even decreased the Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the respective scale. The Communication scale was the only scale with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient that was both low and comparatively different to other studies and had as well low item-total correlations for all constituent items, thus showing non-satisfactory results on two of the three internal consistency reliability estimates. In contrast, the Mobility scale met all three internal consistency reliability criteria.

Conclusion

PDQ-39 is a reliable tool for assessing the QoL of patients at advanced stages of PD across multiple health-related domains. The questionnaire can be recommended for inclusion in the best practice guidelines for evaluating DBS candidacy and the efficacy of DBS treatment for patients' QoL.

Quality of Life in Patients With Parkinson's Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) suffer from a range of physical, psychological, and social problems. The disease affects the quality of life (QOL) of the affected person. Several factors contribute to QOL, and these factors should be examined to develop appropriate strategies. This study aimed to determine the factors related to QOL in patients with PD. A cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted using a tool with strong validity and reliability (39-Item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39)) to assess the quality of life. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data, and non-parametric chi-square tests were applied to evaluate the relationship between QOL and the variables. Frequent hospital admissions, level of education, and marital status were among the factors that affected QOL. The ability to perform Ramadan fasting correlated with the degree of QOL. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has adversely affected the quality of life due to changes in access to medical care and medications. To improve QOL in patients with PD, a comprehensive approach is required in many healthcare domains that includes physiotherapy together with the conventional pharmacotherapy, other treatments, and psychological support.

Enhancing Quality of Life in Indian Parkinson's Disease Patients with Improved Measurement of Psychological Domains: A Perspective

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common progressive neuro-degenerative disorder. Research in PD is gradually increasing in India due to increased clinical cases, which could double by 2030 worldwide. Although its prevalence is low in India as compared to other countries, the total burden is much higher due to the large population size. PD is progressively debilitating, with pronounced motor and nonmotor symptoms (NMSs) that severely affect the quality of life (QoL) of patients and their caregivers. The progressive nature of the disease lays great emphasis on doctors to focus on the patients' QoL. As a consequence, Health-related QoL (HRQoL) has gradually become one of the main indicators for assessing health-related outcome. There is a growing need to pay attention to the NMSs and a pressing need to look at the QoL of Indian patients with PD through a culture and value specific lens. Research into the holistic QoL assessment with emphasis on psychological domains may allow for the early evaluation and intervention of depressive and cognitive symptoms in PD. This could result into increased productivity, reduced morbidity, and healthcare cost, which would in turn result into better QoL of Indian PD patients.

Evaluation of the metric properties of the WHODAS 2.0, WHODAS-S, and RADS in the assessment of disability in Parkinsonian patients

OBJECTIVES

Parkinson's disease is the second most prevalent progressive neurodegenerative disease and causes considerable disability in patients. We conducted a cross-sectional analytical study to examine the metric properties of the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS-2); the 12-item World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS-S) and the Rapid Assessment of Disability Scale (RADS) in assessing disability in Parkinsonian patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Patients with cognitive impairment, neurological disorder, or disability due to any condition other than PD were excluded. One hundred sixty-eight consecutive patients were assessed in ON state. The following attributes were evaluated: data quality and acceptability, reliability, and construct (convergent and known-groups) validity. Testretest reliability was analyzed in fifty-six patients.

RESULTS

Out of 168 patients, 65.4% were men's, 96 (57.1%) at stage III of Hoehn and Yahr. One hundred fifty-one patients lived independently in the community, 102 lived with their spouses, 108 were retired, and 48 were still working. Cronbach's alpha exceeded the minimum requirement of 0.70 for the three scales. The SEM obtained was, also for the three scales, higher than the ½ of the standard deviation value. The validity for known groups showed that all domains were significantly different in both WHODAS-S and RADS. The stability of the scale was evaluated with the test-retest (ICC). The results for the WHODAS-2 ≤ 0.002; for the WHODAS-S were p ≤ 0.000]; and for the RADS were p ≤ 0.000].

CONCLUSION

The RADS is by far the fastest scale to use. All three scales showed suitable metric properties.

Turkish Version Study of "Parkinson's Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire" (PDQL)

INTRODUCTION

This study aimed to evaluate Turkish transcultural adaptation, reliability, and validity of "Parkinson's Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire" (PDQL), which has been developed to assess the quality of life of patients with Parkinson's disease.

METHODS

Eighty-nine patients who were included in the study were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. They were presented to the outpatient clinic of the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department between July 2005 and April 2008. The Turkish translated version of PDQL (PDQL-TR), "Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale" (UPDRS), and Hoehn & Yahr (HY) were used as the main outcome measures.

RESULTS

The calculated Pearson correlation coefficient for PDQL, H&Y, and UPDRS ranged between -0.36 and -0.80. Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the PDQL-TR complete questionnaire and subdomains were higher than 0.80. The absolute value of item-total score correlation coefficients by Pearson fluctuated between 0.40 (question 4-total score) and 0.88 (question 26-total score), whereas the subdomain-total score correlation coefficients ranged between 0.81 and 0.96. PDQL-TR showed high stability according to the ICC results, ranging between 0.75 (Emotional Function) and 0.88 (Parkinsonian Symptoms).

CONCLUSION

The psychometric features of PDQL-TR are satisfactory, and our results are consistent with the previous literature findings. PDQL-TR is a valid and reliable tool to measure health-related quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Psychometric attributes of the rating scale for gait evaluation in Parkinson's disease

BACKGROUND

The RSGE-PD-V2.0 is a specific measure for evaluation of gait impairment in PD.

OBJECTIVE

To check the RSGE-PD-V2.0 metrics attributes.

METHODS

In addition to demographic and historical data of PD, applied assessments were: Hoehn and Yahr staging (H&Y); impact in daily activities with Schwab and England scale (S&E); SCOPA Motor; mental status with Short portable mental status questionnaire (SPMSQ); quality of life with Parkinson's impact scale (PIMS), the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-6 items (HDRS-6); and, the Clinical Impression of Severity Index-PD (CISI-PD).

RESULTS

151 PD patients were included (n = 102 (67.5%) were male). Most patients were in H&Y stage 3 (n = 78 (51.6%)). Mean of age and duration of disease was 68.4 and 7.6 years respectively. Mean values of L-Dopa doses was 652.6 mg/day. Mean values of SCOPA Motor were 29.1; SPMSQ: 1.8; HADS-6: 9.2; PIMS: 18.7;RSGE-PD-V2.0: 25.4; and, CISI-PD were 10.8. Full computable scores were 100%; Guttman's lambda, 0.954; and the item-total correlation, 0.408-0.830. Correlation coefficients (Spearman's rho) between RSGE-PD-V2.0 and H&Y, S&E, SCOPA Motor, PIMS and CISI-PD, were: 0.62; -0.75; 0.74; 0.46; and, 0.78 respectively. RSGE-PD-V2.0 scale significantly discriminated among PD severity levels (based on H&Y staging) Kruskal-Wallis (p < 0.000).

CONCLUSIONS

Metric attributes of the RSGE-PD-V2.0 in this sample of study resulted in has sufficient and suitable satisfactory. We, therefore, believe that RSGE-PD-V2.0 is easy and a useful and recommendable specific tool for measuring gait disease in PD patients.