Category: Parkinson's Disease: Non-Motor Symptoms
Objective: The central aim of this cross-sectional study is to define the cognitive and affective contributors to balance control assessment in a cohort of people with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) attending outpatient care.
Background: PD is a complex neurodegenerative disorder affecting not only motor control systems but also cognition and psychological state – all of which contribute to an increased risk of falling. Falls in PD can cause loss of functional independence, placing a substantial burden on people with PD (PwP), their families and caregivers, as well as the health care system worldwide. Notably, the variability in the pattern of dopamine and cholinergic degeneration and its impact on neural circuits results in diverse motor and non-motor symptom presentations among PD patients. This within-disorder heterogeneity underscores the importance of tailoring clinical assessment of balance control to accommodate patients’ differences.
Method: Data were collected from a convenient sample of PwP without dementia (n = 7) and healthy age-matched controls (n = 3) who completed an extensive battery of clinical neuropsychological tools. To examine cognitive functioning the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) were administered. To reflect the two separate cognitive phenotypes described in PD, two index scores were generated a priori from the MoCA subdomains: 1) fronto-striatal index (comprising the Naming, Attention, Language and Abstraction subdomains); 2) posterior cortical index (comprising the Memory, Orientation and Visuospatial subdomains). In addition, assessment of affective states was done utilizing the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI II) and the Falls Efficacy Scale (FES). Balance control was evaluated with the Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test (Mini-BESTest). A bootstrapping method was employed to increase the sample size.
Results: The PwP cohort demonstrated a complex interaction between cognitive functioning and balance control.
Conclusion: The interaction between cognitive functioning and balance control warrants further multidisciplinary research, and has specific relevance in the assessment of the risk of falling in Parkinson’s Disease.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
E. Spasova, C. O'Keeffe, A. Blanco-Campal, J. Inocentes, C. Fearon, R. Reilly. The Contribution of Cognitive and Affective Factors to Balance Control in People with Parkinson’s Disease Attending an Outpatient Clinic [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2024; 39 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-contribution-of-cognitive-and-affective-factors-to-balance-control-in-people-with-parkinsons-disease-attending-an-outpatient-clinic/. Accessed November 21, 2024.« Back to 2024 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-contribution-of-cognitive-and-affective-factors-to-balance-control-in-people-with-parkinsons-disease-attending-an-outpatient-clinic/