Quality of Life for Patients With Parkinson Disease

Researchers have been studying an idea called health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for many years. What is HRQOL? In 1998, Dr. Martinez-Martin gave this definition: A "patient's own perception and self-evaluation regarding the effects of an illness and its consequences on her or his life.1"Doctors often try to grade how severe the symptoms of a disease are when they examine a patient. But this leaves out all the symptoms a person has that a doctor cannot see. This is especially true for patients with Parkinson disease (PD). HRQOL may be a way of looking at how all symptoms of a disease, both the visible and invisible, are affecting a person. The authors of this study wanted to find out which PD symptoms or details about a person affect quality of life for people with PD.