Quality of Life and Mental Resilience in Patients with Parkinson's Disease: An Explorative, Qualitative Study

摘要

Introduction: Parkinson disease is a chronic neurological disease, associated with significant morbidity. First, we assess quality of life (QOL) in a group of patients with Parkinson Disease (PD). Secondly, we evaluate the influence of mental resilience and the relation between QOL and resilience in this same group. Methods: Participants: Patients are recruited at the neurological department of a general hospital in Belgium. We invite 16 patients, from which 12 accept to participate. Measures: We develop a brief questionnaire to obtain basic demographical and medical information from the participants. We collect data by a semi-structured interview and by 2 questionnaires. To evaluate the quality of life, we use the RAND-36 questionnaire. The RS-NL is used to measure the mental resilience. Data-analysis: We make a qualitative analysis of the obtained data and focus on the relation between QOL and mental resilience in PD. Results: Patients report low to moderate quality of life with moderate to severe feelings of burden, going along with maladaptive coping strategies and resulting in a low degree of resilience. In this small and explorative study, the relation between QOL and mental resilience seems an interesting approach for future research. Conclusion: The relation between QOL and mental resilience in Parkinson, needs to be studied in a larger population. In the clinical management of patients with Parkinson, it becomes an interesting perspective to stress on resilience-augmenting strategies.