Category: Education in Movement Disorders
Objective: The objective of this study is to understand the extent of awareness among the respondents on signs, symptoms, and management of Parkinson’s disease.
Background: Parkinson’s disease affects the central nervous system developing progressive dysfunction. It is associated with tremor, slowness, stiffness and problem in synchronizing and performing various movement of the body. Parkinson’s disease leads to neurodegeneration seen in aging population. An advancing treatment and public sympathy are necessary for care of these patients. However knowledge of Parkinson’s disease is still inadequate in the community and therefore a necessity arise to increase the awareness of its conditions for better attention of the patients.
Method: The research is a cross-sectional study performed among university students in Malaysia. An earlier approved questionnaire containing details of signs, symptoms, and well-established information on Parkinson’s disease was used to collect the data. The demographic information was included in Part 1, Part 2 tested on Parkinson’s disease symptoms, and Part 3 evaluated on its general information.
Results: The questionnaires were distributed to 82 university students and quantification of data was performed by descriptive analysis. The students identified tremor as an extensively known symptom (80.5%). While weight loss was the most common symptom (3.7%) recognized not related to neurons. Many respondents found muscle stiffness rigidity (13.4%) as a problem in Parkinson’s disease but few of them (4.9%) believe imbalance as its condition. Eventually, the symptoms related to muscle involvement are well recognized (9.8% to 80.5%) than the other problems.
Conclusion: The awareness in the educational platform is encouraging to improve the knowledge of Parkinson’s disease as mobility disorder to create attention for proper care of these patients in the community.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
K. Gohain, M. Changmai. A perception of knowledge on Parkinson’s disease among University students [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2021; 36 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/a-perception-of-knowledge-on-parkinsons-disease-among-university-students/. Accessed September 7, 2024.« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2021
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/a-perception-of-knowledge-on-parkinsons-disease-among-university-students/