Objective: Identify factors associated with an improvement in quality of life in Parkinson’s disease (PD) among patients participating to a therapeutic education program.

Background: Therapeutic patient education enables them to manage their illness. It is recommended in chronic diseases to improve therapeutic adherence, patient autonomy and reduce costs. It has been used in PD for a few years, but its evaluation remains limited and the factors influencing quality of life evolution are unknown.

Methods: Medical files of patients participating between September 2013 and March 2017 in a therapeutic education program developed for PD patients (EDUPARK) were retrospectively reviewed. Quality of life evaluation (PDQ-8), and psycho-social disease consequences (SCOPA-ps) were prospectively recorded when patients entered and three months after they had finished the program. EDUPARK is a community-hospital program which can be delivered either individually at home or during group session at the Hospital. Eleven sessions covering the main symptoms or treatments may be proposed depending on the patient specific issues. All patients gave their written consent for data collection.

Results: The study included 181 patients, 120 participated at least to one therapeutic education session at the hospital, and 85 received at least one therapeutic education session at home. Patients were 62.9 ± 8.2 years old, had a disease duration of 9.1 ± 5.3 years. There was an improvement in quality of life (PDQ8, 35.6 ± 15.9 vs 39.4 ± 17.8; p < 0.001) and psychosocial consequences of the disease (SCOPA-ps, 11.0 ± 5.8 vs 12.3 ± 6.4; p< 0.01) after participating in the program. There was no significant correlation between the variation in PDQ-8 and the different variables included in the analyses, especially age, sex, disease duration, severity of motor symptoms or severity of cognitive impairment.

Conclusions: Therapeutic education program in PD improves quality of life and psycho-social consequences of the disease. We did not identify factors predictive of quality of life evolution. It suggests that therapeutic education program could be proposed to every patient, regardless of cognitive status, disease duration and severity or age.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/predictive-factors-of-quality-of-life-evolution-in-parkinsons-disease-patients-participating-in-a-therapeutic-patient-education-program/