Use of a self-rating scale of the nature and severity of symptoms in Parkinson’s Disease (PRO-PD): Correlation with quality of life and existing scales of disease severity

Abstract

Symptom assessment tools: Tracking disease progression Scientists develop a novel Patient Reported Outcomes in Parkinson’s Disease (PRO-PD) scale to improve the assessment of disease progression. To overcome the limitations of existing measures of Parkinson's disease (PD) severity, Laurie K Mischley at Bastyr University Research Institute, USA, and colleagues have created a simple and low cost self-reporting scale that captures subtle changes in both motor and non-motor symptoms. A key feature is that it asks patients to estimate the severity of 32 common symptoms, on average, over the previous 7 days. This reduces score fluctuations due to patients’ response to medication and thus allows better detection of the underlying disease progression. PRO-PD scores from 1031 participants with PD increased with illness duration and correlated well with established scales of disease severity and other patient-reported quality of life measures.