RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Patient education is essential in Parkinson's disease (PD). However, it is not known which aspects of patient education are associated with an improvement in quality of life (QoL). OBJECTIVE: To identify factors that predicted an improvement in QoL in PD patients that participate in an education program. METHODS: EduPark is a community-hospital patient education program. PD Patients that had participated in the program between September 2013 and March 2017 were retrospectively included. QoL was prospectively evaluated (using the PDQ-8 questionnaire) before and after the patient's participation. We used mixed linear models (adjusted for the initial value of the PDQ-8) to determine socio-demographic and clinical variables that predicted the change in the PDQ-8 score. RESULTS: A total of 181 patients were included (mean±standard deviation age: 62.9±8.2 years; disease duration: 9.1±5.3 years). 76.7% of the 103 patients having undergone a cognitive evaluation did not display cognitive impairment. We did not identify any factors that predicted the program's impact on the patient's QoL. Participation in the program was associated with a significant decrease (improvement) in the PDQ-8 score (39.4±17.81 before and 35.6±15.9 afterwards, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: We did not identify any factors that were predictive of the patient education program's impact on QoL in patients with PD. Participation in the program was associated with a significant improvement in QoL. Our results suggest that Patient Education Programs should be more widely prescribed and developed in the management of PD.
