Declining memory, dexterity linked to worsening quality of life in Parkinson’s disease

Key takeaways:

• Mean scores on one quality of life assessment increased from 16 to 19.8 by year 3 of the study.
• Education level and verbal fluency were not associated with declining quality of life.

DENVER — Deterioration of memory and executive functions were associated with worsening quality of life for those with Parkinson’s disease over a 3-year period, according to a poster at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting.

“Previous studies have shown that worsening cognition in patients with Parkinson’s disease is associated with worsening quality of life,” Katharine Ann Henry, MD, a resident in the department of neurology at the University of Virginia Health System, told Healio.

Henry and colleagues sought to examine the cognitive-specific variables associated with decline in quality of life in a cohort of those with PD in a 3-year longitudinal study.

Researchers recruited 105 individuals with PD (59% male) and without dementia from a movement disorders clinic at an academic medical center. All participants were followed annually for 3 years, while submitting to both motor and neuropsychological assessments at each visit.

Quality of life (QOL) was measured using the Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire-39 (PDQ-39), cognitive assessments were made by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), verbal fluency with the Controlled Oral Word Association test (COWA), scanning/working memory via the Trail Making Test (specifically, Trails B-A) and immediate/delayed recall was measured from the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT).

Researchers also analyzed education level, trial year and level of depression, as measured via the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) as potential confounders. Using random coefficient regression, they additionally investigated the association between cognitive performance markers and changes in QOL within the study population. A total of 67 individuals completed all 3 years of follow up.

According to results, mean PDQ-39 scores for participants increased from 16 at baseline to 19.8 by the final year of follow-up. In multivariate analysis, worse Trails B-A performance was uniquely associated with worsened QOL over time (P < 0.001), while education level, COWA, MoCA and HTLV performance were not.

“Worsening ... in a marker of divided attention and ability to task switch is associated with worsening quality of life in patients with Parkinsons,” Henry said. “Lexical retrieval and verbal fluency is not associated with worsening quality of life.”