Objective: To explore a new rating tool to assess satisfaction with life and treatment (SLTS-7) in a PD population.

Background: The satisfaction with life and in particular treatment in Parkinson’s disease (PD) is currently understudied.

Method: In this cross-sectional, multi-center international study including patients screened for deep brain stimulation (DBS) psychometric characteristics of the SLTS-7 were analysed. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to investigate if a division into domains was possible.

Results: In total, 131 PD patients were included. The data quality of the SLTS-7 was excellent (computable data 96.2%) and acceptability measures satisfied standard criteria. Besides the global assessment (item and domain 1) the EFA reproduced three domains among the specific items: Item 2 (physical satisfaction), item 3,4 and 5 (psycho-social satisfaction) and item 6 and 7 (treatment satisfaction). For the four domains we found a high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha index >0.890) and internal validity (intercorrelations 0.51-0.72). SLTS-7 correlations with motor scales were largely weak (80%), with non-motor in the range from weak to moderate. SLTS-7 showed the highest correlations with EQ-5D visual analogue scale (0.45-0.56, p<0.01). The SLTS-7 was able to discriminate between subjective PD change levels since the last visit (p=0.007).

Conclusion: Our results support that the new SLTS-7 is reliable and valid to assess satisfaction with life and treatment in a PD population before undergoing DBS. The SLTS-7 has the potential to improve our understanding on factors contributing to life satisfaction and the patient selection for advanced therapies.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-satisfaction-with-life-and-treatment-scale-slts-7-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/