engleski

Determining the quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease using the principal component analysis method

Parkinson’s disease (PD) symptoms include depression, dementia and dribbling of saliva reduced quality of life (QoL) in PD patients. The objective of study was to determine QoL in PD patients. In this research was analyzed data on 40 PD patients which included 14 women and 26 man (average age 72.1+6.8 years) which underwent neurological care at Clinical Hospital Centre Osijek in Croatia. The QoL in PD patients was examined using a Parkinson's disease questionnaire (PDQ-39). In order to reduce the dimensionality of the obtained data set, as well as in order to explain the relationship between the examined variables that are interrelated the principal component analysis (PCA) method was applied. The following interpretation was obtained by the factor analysis of the PDQ-39 questionnaire completed by the PD patients: the multidimensional space of 39 variables was reduced to six mutually independent variables of principal components. Six eigenvalues explain total of 71.04% of variance. The first factor account for 39.12% of variance and point out problems with mobility and everyday activity as the main components. The second factor accounts for a further 9.67% of variance and separates emotional status. The third factor, social relations, explains further 6.58% of variance. The fourth factor accounts for 5.83% of variance and describes stigma and communication. The fifth factor refers to the physical health, and explains further 5.15% of variance. The sixth factor explains 4.69% of variance and separates cognitive status. PD patients show the most dissatisfaction with mobility, everyday activity and emotional status.

Parkinson’s disease, principal component analysis, quality of life, Parkinson's disease questionnaire

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