The impact of non-motor symptoms on the Health-Related Quality of Life of Parkinson's disease patients from Southwest China

Background: The impact of non-motor symptoms (NMS) on the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) in the Chinese population are largely unknown.

Objectives: To study the impact of NMS on the HRQoL in Chinese PD patients.

Methods: A total of 693 PD patients from Southwest China were included in the study. NMS of patients were evaluated by non-motor symptoms scale (NMSS) and Parkinson's disease questionnaire-39 item version (PDQ-39) was used to evaluate the HRQoL of PD.

Results: The mean total score of NMSS was 37.2 ± 33.0 and the most prevalent NMS domain was sleep/fatigue (79.8%). There was a significant strong positive correlation between total NMSS score (rs = 0.71, P < 0.01), sleep/fatigue domain (rs = 0.60, P < 0.01) and PDQ-39 SI. Mood/apathy (rs = 0.55, P < 0.01), attention/memory (rs = 0.42, P < 0.01), gastrointestinal (rs = 0.44, P < 0.01) and Miscellany domains (rs = 0.46, P < 0.01) moderately correlated with PDQ-39 SI. A strong correlation was found between PDQ-39 SI (rs = 0.71, P < 0.01), emotional well-being (rs = 0.62, P < 0.01), cognitions (rs = 0.62, P < 0.01), and the total score of NMSS. Moderate correlation was found between mobility (rs = 0.45, P < 0.01), activities of daily living (rs = 0.43, P < 0.01), stigma (rs = 0.42, P < 0.01), communication (rs = 0.47, P < 0.01), bodily discomfort (rs = 0.46, P < 0.01) and the total score of NMSS. Female, H-Y stage, UPDRS-III and NMSS total score were the potential determinants of worse HRQoL of PD patients.

Conclusions: NMS have close association with various aspects of the HRQoL. Severe NMS may be related to dramatic decline of the HRQoL of PD patients.