Quality of life in parkinson’s disease patients: Progression markers of mild to moderate stages

Abstract

Objective: To investigate which factors are associated with the quality of life decline in Parkinson’s disease patients from mild to moderate stages. Methods: The Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale and Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire-39 were used to evaluate clinical/functional data and the quality of life. Results: The markers of clinical/functional worsening were drooling (p < 0.004), need for assistance with hygiene (p = 0.02), greater freezing frequency (p = 0.042), bradykinesia (p = 0.031), greater intensity of the resting tremor (p = 0.035) and “pill rolling” (p = 0.001). The decline in quality of life was related to stigma (p = 0.043), greater impairment in cognition (p = 0.002), mobility (p = 0.013) and for daily living activities (p = 0.05), and was considered more significant in men, married, older individuals, and those with a longer time of disease. Conclusions: The quality of life worsening markers at the moderate stage were related to stigma, worsening of cognition, and to greater impairment in mobility and daily living activities.