Generalized assessment of the impact of Parkinson’s disease on functional condition

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Individuals who develop Parkinson's disease are confronted not only with the physical manifestations of the disorder, but also with the psychosocial issues that impact on quality of life. The aim of the current work was to assess the level of psychosocial and physical functioning impairment in 95 patients with Parkinson’s disease (48 men and 47 women aged 65–79, average age 70.3±0.5, stages of Parkinson’s disease acсording to Hoehn and Yahr scale - 2–2.5). This research was carried out with the help of “Functional Limitation Profile” and “Sickness Impact Profile – 68” tests. According to the “Functional Limitation Profile” test, the patients with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease most commonly showed functional condition impairment in 3 categories: “walk” (92% of cases), “social interaction” (85% of cases) and “clarity of mind” (79% of cases). Less frequent condition impairments were changes in the categories “body care and motion” (72% of cases), “emotions” (65% of cases) and “work” (56% of cases). The least impaired were the categories “communication” (22% of cases), “leisure and entertainment” (24% of cases) and “food” (19% of cases). According to the “Sickness Impact Profile – 68” test, patients with Parkinson’s disease showed functional condition impairment most often in the categories “mobility control”, “social behavior” and “degree of mobility”. Patients showed impairment less frequently in the categories “somatic autonomy”, “psychic autonomy and communication”. The least impaired category was “emotional stability”. The highest percent in relation to the maximum possible point was shown in the category “mobility control”, and the lowest in the category “emotional stability”. Thus, this study demonstrates significant impact of the disease on the functional condition of these patients. Functional limits, connected with the disease appearance, are most often present in the motion and social sphere of patients’ life and less frequently in the emotional sphere.

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