The Association of Balance, Fear of Falling, and Daily Activities With Drug Phases and Severity of Disease in Patients With Parkinson

Introduction: In the elderly, functional balance, fear of falling, and independence in daily living activities are interrelated; however, this relationship may change under the influence of drug phase and the severity of disease in individuals with idiopathic Parkinson disease. This study aimed to investigate the association of functional balance, fear of falling, and independence in the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) with the drug on- and drug off-phases. Methods: A total of 140 patients with Parkinson disease (age: Mean±SD; 60.51±12.32 y) were evaluated in terms of their functional balance, fear of falling, and independence in their daily activities by the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Fall Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I), and Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale-ADL (UPDRS-ADL), respectively, in drug on- and drug off-phases. The Hoehn and Yahr scale recorded global disease rating. The Spearman coefficient, Kruskal-Wallis, and Mann-Whitney tests were used to find out whether the distribution of scale scores differs with regard to functional balance or disease severity. Results: A strong correlation was found between the functional balance, fear of falling, and independence in ADL with both drug phases. The results also showed the significant difference in the distribution of the FES-I and UPDRS-ADL scores with regard to functional balance (except independence in ADL in drug off-phase). Also, the distribution of the scores of BBS, FES-I, and UPDRS-ADL showed significant differences with regard to disease severity. Conclusion: The study showed a strong correlation between functional balance, fear of falling, and independence in ADL that can be affected by the drug phase and severity of the disease. However, more studies are needed to understand this relationship precisely.This work was supported by the Student Research Committee in Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.S