Quality of life of patients with Parkinson's disease and neurodegenerative dementia: A nationally representative study

Abstract Background The disability inherent to Parkinson's disease and dementia would suggest poor health-related quality of life for patients with these neurodegenerative conditions; however, the extent of disability from a nationally representative data has not been previously available. Objectives This study examined factors associated with the health-related quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease and dementia using nationally representative samples. Methods The study used data from 2002 to 2011 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a nationally representative survey of households in the United States. The quality of life of patients was captured based on Physical Component Summary (PCS), Mental Component Summary (MCS), Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL). Multivariate regression models were used to compare PCS, MCS, ADL and IADL across the two neurodegenerative conditions after controlling for various sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Results The weighted study population included 0.80 million (95% Confidence Interval, CI: 0.75–0.85) patients; those with Parkinson's disease accounted for 40.23% and remaining 59.77% were diagnosed with dementia. Mean age of the study population was 74.32 years (Standard Deviation, SD = 11.36). Most of the Parkinson's patients were male (57.70%), whereas most of the dementia patients were females (58.10%). The unadjusted mean PCS was 33.66 and 35.31 in Parkinson's and dementia patients, respectively ( P P  = 0.02). Various other individual, biological and environmental factors were also associated with quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease and neurodegenerative dementia. Conclusions This study found that patients with Parkinson's disease had lower PCS and were less likely to seek help for IADL when compared to the patients with neurodegenerative dementia. Knowledge of these factors can be helpful in improving quality of life of patients with neurodegenerative diseases.