Assessing quality of life in Parkinson's disease: can a short-form questionnaire be useful?

Various instruments with good psychometric properties have been developed for the assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Parkinson's disease, (PD); however, in everyday practice a brief questionnaire is needed for quick screening of patients. We present the process of development and validation of the Greek version of PD questionnaire-8 (PDQ-8(GrV)), which is an 8-item scale derived from a well-known measure for the evaluation of HRQoL in PD, the PD questionnaire (PDQ-39). PDQ-8 (GrV) was applied to 228 nondemented Greek PD patients.

Direct economic impact of Parkinson's disease: a research survey in the United Kingdom.

The direct costs of care were evaluated prospectively in a sample of people with Parkinson's disease (PD) in the United Kingdom in 1998. The subjects were drawn from a random sample of general practitioner practices within a representative sample of 36 Regional Health Authorities and the equivalent. A total of 444 resource use questionnaires with usable data were returned (response rate, 59%).

Interpreting change scores on the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Assessment Questionnaire (ALSAQ-40).

Objectives: To determine the amount of change over time on the five dimensions of the 40-item Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Assessment Questionnaire (ALSAQ-40) that are subjectively meaningful to patients. Minimally important differences (MID), effect sizes (ES) and standardized response means (SRM) are calculated for respondents who indicate only a little change over the time of the study whilst mean change scores, ES and SRM statistics are calculated for those who indicated much change.

Design: Postal survey.

Using the SF-36 measure to compare the health impact of multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease with normal population health profiles.

Objective: To examine the relative impact of two chronic neurological disorders, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, by comparing patients' scores on the medical outcomes study 36-item short form health survey (SF-36) with the health profile of the United Kingdom population norms.

Methods: 638 people representing the full spectrum of multiple sclerosis and 227 patients with Parkinson's disease were studied. Health status was measured by the SF-36.

Use of the short form health survey (SF-36) in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: tests of data quality, score reliability, response rate and scaling assumptions.

Objectives: To evaluate response rate, data quality, score reliability and scaling assumptions of the 36 item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) in a large scale pan European survey of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients.

Design: A questionnaire based survey of patients diagnosed with ALS across 15 European countries. SAMPLE PATIENTS: presenting at neurological clinics for treatment of their condition were asked to partake in the survey.