Session Information
Date: Monday, September 23, 2019
Session Title: Quality of Life
Session Time: 1:45pm-3:15pm
Location: Les Muses Terrace, Level 3
Objective: Compare clinical and demographic characteristics of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) who use social work/counseling services (SW-U) with non-users. Describe if PD Centers of Excellence with a higher propensity to utilize SW have better health outcomes.
Background: There are limited data on utilization and impact of social work/counseling services on outcomes in PD. A prior study suggested social work/counseling services users are less likely to have worsening of Parkinson Disease Questionnaire-39 (PDQ39) score, however differences between Hoehn and Yahr (HY) stages weren’t investigated.
Method: We included all patients with PD enrolled in PF-QII registry with two or more visits, and not referred to SW before the first visit. SW-U were defined as having been referred to social work/counseling after the first movement disorders neurology visit. SW-U were compared to non-users across different HY stages. Total PDQ39 score was compared between SW-U and non-users controlling for age, years since diagnosis, HY stage, number of comorbidities and baseline PDQ39 total score. Univariate linear regression was used to assess the association of center propensity score with PDQ39 and Hospital/ER visits (HER).
Results: We included 4520 patients. Stratified by HY stage, 3.45% of people in HY 1-2, 3.76% in HY 3, and 4.48% in HY 4-5 were SW-U. In HY 3, SW-U were younger than non-users. After controlling for confounding demographic variables, SW-U in HY 4-5 had a total PDQ39 score 5.4 points better compared to non-users (p =0.027, 95%CI: -10 to -0.6). Centers with a greater propensity to use SW did not have associated differences in total PDQ39 score or HER.
Conclusion: Proactive referral to Social work/counselling is rare, but is associated with better quality of life in individuals with late stage PD. This positive effect wasn’t observed in center-level analyses. Characterization of specific social work/counseling interventions may help further explore this disparity.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
P. Gonzalez-Latapi, M. Rafferty, S. Wu, H. Chen, T. Simuni. Social work support is associated with better health-related quality of life in late stage Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2019; 34 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/social-work-support-is-associated-with-better-health-related-quality-of-life-in-late-stage-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed May 15, 2025.« Back to 2019 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/social-work-support-is-associated-with-better-health-related-quality-of-life-in-late-stage-parkinsons-disease/