Quality of Life and Caregivers' Burden of Parkinson's Disease

AIM: This study focused on the impact of the clinical features on the quality of life (QoL) of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and of their caregivers.

METHODS: This study included PD patients along with their caregivers and was undertaken at the Malaysian Parkinson's Disease Association from June 2016 to November 2016. Clinical features of PD patients were assessed using the Movement Disorder Society revised Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale; the Hoehn and Yahr stage and the Schwab and England Activities of Daily Living Scale were used to assess the severity and the ability of PD patients respectively. QoL of PD patients was measured using the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-39 (PDQ-39). The revised version of the Zarit Burden Interview assessed caregiver burden.

RESULTS: At least one of the clinical features affected PD patients' QoL, and at least one of the QoL domains affected the caregivers' burden. Clinical features "saliva and drooling" and "dyskinesia" explained 29% of variance in QoL of PD patients. The QoL domains "stigma," along with "emotional well-being" explained 48.6% of variance in caregivers' burden.

CONCLUSIONS: The clinical features "saliva and drooling" and "dyskinesia" impacted the QoL of PD patients, and the QoL domains "stigma" and "emotional well-being" of PD patients impacted their caregivers' burden.