Patients' experiences of Parkinson's disease

Meryl Brod, Gerald A. Mendelsohn, Brent Roberts

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Patients' (n = 101) experiences of Parkinson's disease (PD) were studied through structured interviews. Oblique factor analysis produced three moderately intercorrelated clusters of items reflecting reported severity of motoric, cognitive, and psychological problems, respectively. Scales formed from the factors were correlated with demographic, disease-related, and psychosocial variables. The demographic variables were not significantly correlated with the scales or with any other variables in the set. Hoehn and Yahr staging was significantly related to scores only on the motoric severity scale. Measures of functional capacity, in contrast, were significantly associated with all three scales. Although the addition of the psychosocial variables as a set significantly increased multiple Rs for each of the three scales, the specific patterns of correlation varied from scale to scale. The findings indicate that from the viewpoint of the patient the problems created by PD were not restricted to the motoric domain. Too narrow a focus by clinicians and researchers on medical symptomatology may give insufficient recognition to the multidimensional nature of the patient's experience.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)P213-P222
JournalJournals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
Volume53
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1998
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Life-span and Life-course Studies

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