Translation, Cross-Cultural Adaptation, and Validation of the Parkinson's Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire (PDQL), the "PDQL-BR", into Brazilian Portuguese

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.

Balance, gait and quality of life in Parkinson's disease: Effects of whole body vibration treatment

Introduction Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder, which triggers limitations and disability in people. Therefore, rehabilitation therapy is widely recommended in patients with PD, especially those who do not respond to pharmacological treatment.Objective Evaluate the effect of a protocol of Whole-body Vibration (WBV) in balance, gait and Quality of Life (QOL) of patients with PD, who do not respond to pharmacological treatment.Methods It was performed 12 sessions of a protocol WBV (squat, plantar flexion, isometric contraction of members and single-leg balance), with three sets each, at a vibrating platform (2mm and 35Hz) in 10 PD patients. By the first 3 sessions, patients underwent 20 seconds of exercise and 20 seconds of rest. After the third session, the treatment was 40 seconds of exercise and 20 seconds of rest. The Tinetti Test was applied before and after treatment to assess balance and gait, and the Parkinson's Disease Quality of Life-questionnaire (PDQL-BR), to evaluate the PDQL-BR and its subcategories: Parkinson, Systemic, Social and Emotional.Results Treatment did not significantly change the balance (p = 0.438), QOL issue in Emotional (p = 0.450) and Social (p = 0.171), but improved gait (p = 0.003), the Tinetti (p ≤ 0.001), the quality of life in items Parkinson (p ≤ 0.001), Systemic (p ≤ 0.001) and PDQL-BR (p ≤ 0.001).Conclusions WBV exercises on the vibrating platform, according to the parameters used, showed promising results that encourage its use to improve the clinical conditions related to disorders of gait, balance and QOL in patients with PD.