QUALITY-OF-LIFE MEASUREMENTS IN PATIENTS WITH PARKINSONS-DISEASE - A COMMUNITY-BASED STUDY

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the health-related quality of life in a community-based population of patients with Parkinson's d isease (PD). The PD population consisted of 233 patients and was deriv ed from a wider prevalence study in the county of Rogaland, Norway. Th e quality of life was measured by the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) and four general health and well-being questions. The results were com pared with quality of life measurements in 100 patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and 100 healthy elderly people. The control groups had t he same age and sex distribution as the patients with PD. This study s howed that PD has a substantial impact on the health-related quality o f life. Patients with PD had higher distress scores in all measured di mensions of the NHP than the two control groups. The negative impact o f PD was highest for physical mobility, emotional reactions, social is olation and energy. Correlation analysis of the quality of life showed that age, duration of levodopa therapy, higher levodopa doses, depres sion, cognitive impairment and more advanced disease correlated with h igher distress scores in patients with PD. The results of this study s howed that PD had a broad impact on well-being, more so than DM. The d istress related to the severity of the disease, as well as to depressi ve symptoms and cognitive impairment. An important finding was the und erestimated distress related to lack of energy. (C) 1998 Lippincott Wi lliams & Wilkins.