Objective: To examine Fear of progression (FoP) prevalence and to analyze FoP predictors in a large Parkinson’s disease (PD) sample.

Background: FoP is a reactive and conscious concern about chronic disease progression and its consequences, which may limit quality of life substantially. Only one study has examined FoP in PD patients, in which they showed the second highest FoP scores compared to other chronic diseases. No study has analyzed predictors of FoP in PD patients.

Method: Within a multicenter cross-sectional study, 120 PD inpatients (age: 64.45±9.20; 60.8% male; UPDRS-III: 28.86±16.12) were examined with the FoP questionnaire (FoP-Q; max. 34 points). Stepwise regression analysis examined sociodemographic, clinical, and neuropsychological FoP predictors.

Results: With a mean FoP-Q score of 8.08±2.17, 63.0% of the patients were classified with moderate FoP and 17.6% with dysfunctional (i.e., severe) FoP. The highest scores were shown for the FoP subscale ‘loss of autonomy’. Increased levels of anxiety, less self-efficacy, female gender, current employment, and lower health literacy were identified as significant FoP predictors.

Conclusion: With more than 80% of patients showing moderate to dysfunctional FoP, it must be regarded as a frequent symptom in PD, which needs to be further understood and addressed in clinical practice. FoP was predicted by anxiety, less self-efficacy and health literacy, female gender, and being employed, but not by clinical parameters like PD duration and severity, indicating that FoP awareness must be considered by professionals at all disease stages.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/fear-of-progression-is-predicted-by-anxiety-and-self-efficacy-but-not-disease-specific-parameters-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease-data-from-a-multicenter-cross-sectional-study/