Quality-of-life perception by Parkinson's disease patients and caregivers.

BACKGROUND: The quality-of-life (QoL) perception by Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and their caregivers (CG) has not been studied in depth. OBJECTIVE: To examine patient/proxy agreements on the PD QoL Questionnaire (PDQ-39), the Scale of Quality of Life of Care-Givers (SQLC) and the Multidimensional Caregiver Strain Index (MCSI). METHODS: Patients with PD and their CG completed the above-mentioned questionnaires about themselves and each other. The intraclass correlations between their scores (paired t test) were compared. RESULTS: Twelve patient-CG pairs were studied. Agreements for QoL items were strong and comparable for the total scores of the PDQ-39, SQLC and MCSI questionnaires (75.4% ± 14%; 78.1% ± 14.1% and 78.2% ± 14.3%, respectively). Agreements ranged from moderate to strong (0.57-0.88, P≤.05) for the patients' physical condition (PDQ-39 items 3, 5, 6, 8, 12-15, 23, 24, 35), mental concentration (item 31) and depression (item 17). Disagreements were apparent in 20%-25% of the pairs and were particularly significant for PDQ-39 items #33 and #25 (embarrassment of patients in public and distressing dreams or hallucinations), in which the CG gave higher scores than the patients. CONCLUSIONS: Agreements between patients with PD and CG were generally good for most, but not all, of the PDQ-39, SQLC and MCSI domains.

[Morbidity and mortality from stroke among the population of Moscow]. / Zabolevaemost' i smertnost' ot mozgovogo insul'ta sredi naseleniia Moskvy.

The paper is concerned with the data on the brain stroke incidence and lethality among the population aged 25-64 years in 3 districts of Moscow during 1985. The rate of brain stroke was noted to be increased with age without any essential differences in the indicators in men and women. Comparison of the results of the investigation with the data of the Register, carried out in one of the districts of Moscow during 1972-1973 did not reveal any changes in both the disease incidence and lethality due to brain stroke. The rise of the calls on ambulances and emergency medical service for acute derangement of brain circulation is explained by the authors by a possible growth of the number of the disease cases among senile patients or by aging of the population of Moscow.