Assessing health-related quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease in a prospective longitudinal study

Received 31 January 2006; received in revised form 11 July 2006; accepted 13 July 2006.

Abstract

Objective

To prospectively assess the health-related quality of life (HrQoL) in Parkinson's disease (PD) during 12 months.

Methods

HrQoL was assessed in 145 PD patients using the PD-specific PDQ-39, PDQL and the generic EQ-5D. In addition, clinical rating-scales were used.

Results

All scales showed a pronounced effect of PD. In comparison to an age-matched population the EQ-5D was considerably affected. In comparison to baseline, however, there was no significant change in the generic scale but a significant change in the sum-score of disease-specific HrQoL-scales.

Conclusions

Only disease-specific scales were sensitive to change. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the time-dependent change in HrQoL.

Keywords: Quality of life, Outcome, PDQ-39, EQ-5D, PDQL, Parkinson's disease

a Department of Neurology, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany

b Friedrich-Wilhelms-University, Bonn, Germany

c Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technical University, Dresden, Germany

d MERG, Medical Economics Research Group, München, Germany

e Metronomia, München, Germany

Corresponding author. Department of Neurology, Philipps-University Marburg, Rudolf-Bultmannstr. 8, 35039 Marburg, Germany. Tel.: +4964212865606; fax: +4964212865606.

PII: S1353-8020(06)00160-X

doi:10.1016/j.parkreldis.2006.07.009

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