Journal Article

Clinical and functional correlates of parkinsonism in a population-based sample of individuals aged 75 + : the Pietà study

Caramelli, Paulo, Machado, João Carlos Barbosa, Teixeira, Antônio Lúcio, Cunningham, Mauro César Quintão, Maia, Débora Palma, Cardoso, Francisco Eduardo Costa, Resende, Elisa de Paula Franca, Vale, Thiago Cardoso, Guimarães, Henrique Cerqueira, da Silva, Danilo Jorge, Barbosa, Maira Tonidandel

2023

Overview

Background Parkinsonism is strongly associated with ageing, and many studies have suggested that parkinsonian signs may affect up to half of older adults and is associated with a wide range of adverse health outcomes. We compared clinical and functional characteristics of oldest-old community-dwelling individuals with parkinsonism (parkinsonian group [PG]) to individuals without parkinsonism (non-parkinsonian group [NPG]. Methods The Pietà study is a population-based study conducted in Caeté, southeast Brazil, involving 607 individuals aged 75 + years submitted to an extensive clinical evaluation. A subset of 65 PG individuals (61.5% women, median age of 82 years) was compared to 542 NPG individuals (64.8% women, median age of 80 years). Results PG individuals had significantly more functional impairment, clinical comorbidities (including number of falls, loss of bladder control and dysphagia) and major depression. Multivariate analysis revealed that older age, higher UPDRSm scores, lower category fluency test (animals/minute) and delayed recall memory scores were associated with PG. This group was also more cognitively impaired, with lower performance than NPG individuals in the Mini-Mental State Examination, category fluency test (animals/minute), clock drawing and in delayed recall (p < 0.001 for all tests). UPDRSm scores were the most contributing factor to cognition that independently explained variability in functionality of the entire sample. Conclusion Individuals aged 75 + years with parkinsonism were significantly more clinically and functionally impaired in this population-based sample. Cognitive dysfunction explained most of the loss of functionality in these patients. UPDRS-m scores contributed independently to explain variability in functionality in the whole sample.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Activities of daily living / Age groups / Aged patients / Aging / Alzheimer's disease / Analysis / Basal ganglia / Brain diseases / Care and treatment / Central nervous system diseases / Cognitive ability / Comorbidity / Dementia / Developing countries / Diagnosis / Dysphagia / Functional decline / LDCs / Medical imaging / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Mental disorders / Movement disorders / Multivariate analysis / Neurochemistry / Neuroimaging / Neurology / Neurosurgery / Normal distribution / Parkinson's disease / Parkinsonism / Population studies / Population-based studies / Questionnaires