Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the quality of life in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and to establish statistical correlations with clinical characteristics and especially psychiatric symptoms of PD.
Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is recognized for both its motor and non-motor symptoms. Those symptoms may have an impact in patient’s quality of life (QOL), as PD is a chronic and potentially disabling disease.
Method: We conducted a transversal population-based study of patients followed in the department of Neurology of Charles Nicolle hospital of Tunisia for PD.
QOL was assessed by PDQ-39 (Parkinson Disease Quality of life) scale, which includes 39 questions covering 8 domains.
Results: Our study included 30 patients with PD. The average age of our patients was 64.17+-9 years with a sex ratio of 0.66. The PDQ-39 score covered 8 areas: The average score for mobility was=28.70; activities of daily living=29.53; emotional well-being=55.97; psychological discomfort=41; social support=23.17; cognitive disorders=35.77 with; communication=27 and physical discomfort=32. We observed a statistically significant correlation between sleep disorders and daily living activities (p=0.05), as well as emotional well-being (p=0.03). Depression was correlated with emotional well-being (p=0.01) and physical discomfort (p=0.04), as well as for anxiety disorder correlated with emotional well-being (p=0.01) and psychological discomfort (p=0.05).
We did not observe a statistically significant correlation between the quality of life and other psychiatric disorders such as psychotic disorders, sexual disorders, and substance-related disorders.
Conclusion: Assessing the impact of psychiatric disorders on the quality of life of Parkinson’s patients is an important issue. This highlights that clinicians should diagnose these disorders at the onset of the disease and also focus on their management.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
S. Frikha, O. Ben Othmen, M. Ben Mahmoud, S. Fray, H. Jamoussi, M. Fredj, N. Ben Ali. Quality of life assessment in patients with Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2024; 39 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/quality-of-life-assessment-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed May 10, 2025.« Back to 2024 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/quality-of-life-assessment-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/