THE USEFULNESS OF THE FUNCTIONAL STATUS QUESTIONNAIRE AND MEDICAL OUTCOMES STUDY SHORT-FORM IN PARKINSONS-DISEASE RESEARCH

Parkinson's disease (PD) has no cure and is a progressive neurological disorder with treatment aimed at the maintenance of function and limi tation of the symptoms. No extensive studies of the disease's impact o n health-related quality of life (HRQoL) have been conducted. The purp ose of this study was to assess the potential usefulness of the Medica l Outcomes Study Short Form (SF-36) and the Functional Status Question naire (FSQ) in Parkinson's disease research. This cross-sectional stud y of 193 PD patients who visited two hospital-based neurology clinics used self-administered in-clinic and take-home questionnaires to ascer tain the demographic and environmental characteristics of the subjects and to gain health profile measures from the SF-36 and the FSQ. The t wo health profiles provide important HRQoL information supplementary t o the traditional signs and symptoms evaluated by the Unified Parkinso n's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). Many of the HRQoL measures discrimin ate progressive stages of disease in this study group and distinguish those with complications of therapy from subjects without complication s. (C) 1998 Lippincott-Raven Publishers.