AAN 2021 | Determinants of HRQoL in Parkinson’s disease

Meredith Bock, MD, University of California, San Francisco, CA, shares the findings of an evaluation of determinants of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a large online cohort of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). HRQoL is becoming increasingly used to guide clinical decisions and as a therapeutic trial outcome measure, so understanding the key contributors to patients’ experience of PD is critical. In the cohort of over 23,000 patients, the strongest predictors of a worse QoL included more severe motor symptoms, a higher number of medical comorbidities, more non-motor symptoms, and depressive symptoms. Additionally, the impact of motor symptoms was found to vary significantly, with certain subpopulations reporting a greater impact than others. Longitudinal analyses are needed to assess how QoL varies over the course of the disease. This interview took place during the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) 2021 Annual Meeting.