Nonmotor symptoms are independently associated with impaired health-related quality of life in Chinese patients with Parkinson's disease

✍ Scribed by Huijuan Li; Meifen Zhang; Ling Chen; June Zhang; Zhong Pei; Ailing Hu; Qing Wang

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 83 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-3185
• DOI: 10.1002/mds.23368

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

We performed a cross‐sectional study of 82 Chinese patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) enrolled during an 18‐month period using a clinical interview to assess the prevalence of nonmotor symptoms (NMS), the association with disease severity and motor status, and the impact on patients' health‐related quality of life (Hr‐QoL). The patients' NMS, Hr‐QoL, disease severity, and motor status were assessed by the Nonmotor Symptoms Scale (NMSS), the 39‐item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ‐39), the modified Hoehn and Yahr staging scale (H&Y) and the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale part III (UPDRS III), respectively. We found that 100% of patients with PD presented with NMS. The NMSS significantly correlated with disease duration (Spearman's r~S~ = 0.276, P = 0.012), H&Y (r~S~ = 0.230, P = 0.038), and UPDRS III (r~S~ = 0.350, P = 0.001). Similarly, the PDQ‐39 SI significantly associated with the disease duration (r~S~ = 0.258, P = 0.019), H&Y (r~S~ = 0.340, P = 0.002), and UPDRS III (r~S~ = 0.453, P < 0.001). NMS domains that influenced the PDQ‐39 SI were sleep/fatigue, mood, gastrointestinal, urinary, and miscellaneous symptoms. This strongly suggested that the five domains played a key role in the manifestation of Hr‐QoL. NMSS explains more of the variability in Hr‐QoL than UPDRS III, when both are the model (stepwise multiple linear regression analysis R^2^ change, 47.8% vs. 5.87%, respectively). Therefore, these findings demonstrate that NMS are independently and negatively associated with Hr‐QoL in PD and that improving NMS should be viewed as an important part in the management of PD. © 2010 Movement Disorder Society