Objective: To evaluate the effect of socio-economic status (SES) on quality of life (QoL) in persons with Parkinson’s disease (PWP).

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) has a significant financial burden on PWP but the effect of SES on QoL is not delineated in PWP. [1]

Method: 134 PWP were assessed for their SES by Kuppuswami scale and QoL by Short Form- 36 (SF-36) scale. Kuppuswami scale classifies SES into 5 classes i.e. upper (U), upper middle (UM), lower middle (LM), upper lower (UL) and lower (L) class. Demographics, duration of symptoms of PD, severity of PD by Hoehn and Yahr scale, drug dosage by levodopa equivalent daily dosage and functional status by Schwab and England Activities of Daily Living scale were recorded.  Physical component summary (PCS) score and mental component summary (MCS) score of SF-36 scale were compared across SES classes using ANOVA with post-hoc analysis and multiple regression analysis by adjusting age, gender, duration of symptoms of PD, functional status, co-morbid diseases, severity of PD, medicine dosage, family type and dwelling area as covariates.

Results: The mean (SD) age of participants (n=134) was 56.1 (12.4) years, M:F::78:22, with mean duration of symptoms  6.9 (4.9) years. The percentage of U, UM, LM, UL and L classes of SES in our cohort was 15.7, 34.3, 36.6, 11.9 and 1.5 respectively. For further analysis ‘UL and L classes’ were combined to L class. The mean PCS score of U, UM, LM and L classes were 41, 41.5, 39.7 and 36.1 respectively while MCS scores were 46.9, 43.7, 41.7 and 35.8 respectively. Lower SES had poor MCS score (F=4.24, df=3, p=0.007) while PCS score was not different across various SES classes (F=2.1, df=3, p=0.1). On regression analysis, unadjusted PCS Score of lower SES class was not different from other 3 classes, but after adjustment of covariates lower SES class had significantly poor PCS scores (β =-6.64, p=0.02, 95% CI= -12.19, -1.10) in reference to upper SES class.  The unadjusted MCS Score of lower SES class was poor compared to upper SES (β =-11.05, p=0.001, 95% CI= -17.47, -4.63) class.  After adjustment of covariates PWP of UM, LM and L classes had significantly poor MCS scores compared to upper SES (p=0.007, 0.024 and 0.002 respectively) class.

Conclusion: Lower SES class has poor QoL compared to upper SES class of PWP. Mental component is affected more than physical component of QoL in PWP of lower SES class.

References: [1] Behari M, Srivastava AK, Pandey RM. Quality of life in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2005 Jun;11(4):221–6.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/does-socio-economic-status-have-impact-on-quality-of-life-in-persons-with-parkinsons-disease/