Objective: To correlate sleep quality with balance and risk of falls in elderly with Parkinson’s disease.

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects more than 1% of people over 55 years. It is characterized by motor symptoms such as postural instability and increased risk of falls, and non-motor symptoms such as sleep disorders. For this reason, delailed evaluation and proper management of these symptoms in this population is required.

Method: Cross-sectional study composed of 22 elderly individuals with PD. To assess sleep quality, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) were used. To assess the risk of falls, FES-I was used. Postural control was evaluated by the force platform, and the double task by the Strop test. To analyze the correlations between the variables, the Spearman correlation test was performed, considering p <0,05.

Results: In the evaluation of sleep quality (PSQI) vs balance, correlations were observed between the domains: duration, sleep quality and medication use. Regarding the sleep duration domain, there was a significant negative correlation in the tandem open eyes (OE) positions in the variables: COP area (r = -468 P = .028), AP amplitude (r = -, 738 P = .000), ML amplitude (r = -, 527 P = .012), AP velocity (r = -, 588 P = .004) and ML speed (r = -, 444 P = .039), tandem closed eyes (CE) in the variable:  AP amplitude (r = -, 545 P =, 009) and tandem of the variable: AP amplitude (r = -645 P =, 001) and ML velocity (r = -, 453 P =, 034 ). Significant negative correlation was found in the tandem OE and tandem CE postures in the ML velocity variable, (r = -, 514 P =, 014 and r = -, 543 P =, 009) respectively. In the evaluation of excessive daytime sleepiness vs balance there was a significant negative correlation in tandem OE and tandem CE, in the velocity variable ML, (r = -, 514 P = .014 and r = -, 543 P = .009) respectively.

Conclusion: Sleep quality and excessive daytime sleepiness correlate with balance in the elderly with PD, however, no correlation was found between risk of falls vs balance in these individuals.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/correlation-between-sleep-quality-risk-of-falls-and-balance-in-elderly-with-parkinsons-disease/