Session Information
Date: Monday, June 5, 2017
Session Title: Quality Of Life/Caregiver Burden in Movement Disorders
Session Time: 1:45pm-3:15pm
Location: Exhibit Hall C
Objective: The aim of this study was exploring the correlation between disease severity and QoL in PSP and MSA.
Background: MSA and PSP are atypical Parkinsonian disorders that progress more rapidly than PD, have a poor response to symptomatic treatments and have a marked impact on QoL. As the emphasis of clinical care has shifted to promote QoL in movement disorders, it is important to clarify how disease impacts upon different aspects of QoL to improve clinical care.
Methods: 47 participants were recruited; 24 had a diagnosis of PSP and 23 had MSA. They were assessed using a comprehensive battery of disease severity and quality of life measures, both objective, subjective, disease-specific and generic.
Analysis was carried out using IBM SPSS 21. Spearman’s Rho testing was used to assess correlation between measures.
Mann-Whitney U tests were used to compare QoL, Palliative Outcome Score (POS-PD) and demographics between patient groups.
Results: When MSA and PSP patients were considered overall using generic surrogates of severity (ADL score) and health status (RAND36) a negative correlation was found between functional ability (Bristol Activities of Daily Living scale) and Mental Composite RAND score (mental health status) r= -0.345 p=0.018
A positive correlation was found between disease-specific quality of life (PSP-QoL) and disease-specific severity (PSPRS) in PSP, r=0.768, p = 0.00 but no significant correlation was found between in MSA r=0.399, p=0.059.
When subjective rather than disease-specific QoL was considered using SEIQOL-DW, QoL did not correlate significantly with severity using BADLS or UMSARS/PSPRS scores.
Negative correlation was found between subjective QoL and palliative care need (POS-PD) as well as depression (DASS) and also between disease-specific QoL and POS/Depression.
Conclusions: Disease specific severity correlates with disease-specific QoL measures, which would be expected as these scores look specifically at problems related to disease. Subjective QoL scores do not have this relationship but do have a correlation with depression and palliative care requirement which may impact more upon the person’s whole sense of well-being and ability to adjust to disease. There is crossover with disease-specific severity measures and depression/palliative care need which suggests that addressing low mood and using a palliative approach to symptoms may be effective in improving global QoL in these atypical Parkinsonian disorders.
References: [1] Winter Y, Spottke AE, Stamelou M, Cabanel N, Eggert K, Hoglinger GU, Sixel-Doering F, Herting B, Klockgether T, Reichmann H, Oertel WH, Dodel R (2011) Health-related quality of life in multiple system atrophy and progressive supranuclear palsy. Neurodegener Dis 8, 438-446.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
L. Wiblin, M. Lee, D. Burn. Aspects of Quality of Life in MSA and PSP [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2017; 32 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/aspects-of-quality-of-life-in-msa-and-psp/. Accessed May 13, 2025.« Back to 2017 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/aspects-of-quality-of-life-in-msa-and-psp/