Objective: To explore the how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed healthcare experiences for people living with Parkinson’s disease (PwP) in Canada.
Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative condition affecting about 60,000 Canadians (1). As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been worldwide challenges with healthcare provision in PwP (2, 3), with an increasing use of telehealth for ongoing provision of care (4, 5). There is limited data on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare experiences for PwP living in Canada.
Method: We conducted a national cross-sectional online survey about healthcare access for PwP in 2020 (n=298). This analysis focused on experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used a Wilcoxon signed-rank test on Likert scale responses to determine significant changes levels, using an alpha of 5%.
Results: Preliminary results suggest that during the COVID-19 pandemic participants had greater difficulty obtaining PD-related healthcare services (p < 0.01) and were less satisfied with healthcare provision (p < 0.01). No significant differences were detected in the ability to receive care when needed. Ninety-three percent of respondents had access to the technology required for virtual care; 58.4% were confident in the remote assessment of their symptoms and 69.0% were confident in the remote assessment of their treatment. Reported barriers to accessing care during the COVID-19 pandemic included systems-level factors (e.g., cancellation of non-essential services) and patient/physician level factors (e.g., limitations of remote assessments and difficult communication with healthcare providers). Specific patient suggestions for improvement included improving ease of telehealth use (e.g., using video rather than telephone) and increased education (e.g., increasing knowledge of locally available resources).
Conclusion: These results suggest that healthcare experiences for PwP have significantly changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. We provide patient-centered suggestions on improving this experience moving forwards.
References: 1. Wong SL, Gilmour HL, Ramage-Morin PL. Parkinson’s disease: Prevalence, diagnosis and impact. Statistics Canada Ottawa; 2014. 2. Fasano A, Antonini A, Katzenschlager R, Krack P, Odin P, Evans AH, et al. Management of Advanced Therapies in Parkinson’s Disease Patients in Times of Humanitarian Crisis: The COVID-19 Experience. Mov Disord Clin Pract. 2020;7(4):361-72. 3. Elbeddini A, To A, Tayefehchamani Y, Wen C. Potential impact and challenges associated with Parkinson’s disease patient care amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic. J Clin Mov Disord. 2020;7:7. 4. Thomas S, Mancini F, Ebenezer L, Price J, Carta T, Cordasco J, et al. Parkinson’s disease and the COVID-19 pandemic: responding to patient need with nurse-led telemedicine. British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing. 2020;16(3):131-3. 5. Quinn L, Macpherson C, Long K, Shah H. Promoting Physical Activity via Telehealth in People With Parkinson Disease: The Path Forward After the COVID-19 Pandemic? Physical Therapy. 2020;100(10):1730-6.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
M. Mckeown, T. Mestre, E. Crighton. People living with Parkinson’s disease during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A cross-sectional survey of the Canadian experience [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2021; 36 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/people-living-with-parkinsons-disease-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-a-cross-sectional-survey-of-the-canadian-experience/. Accessed June 15, 2025.« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2021
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/people-living-with-parkinsons-disease-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-a-cross-sectional-survey-of-the-canadian-experience/