Clinical Profile of Chinese Long-Term Parkinson’s Disease Survivors With 10 Years of Disease Duration and Beyond

BACKGROUND: Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with 10 years or more survival (PD-10) are not well characterized. The aim of this study was to evaluate the main issues facing PD-10 patients and identify factors that independently contributed to quality of life (QoL). METHODS: A group of 121 PD-10 patients recruited from outpatient clinics participated in this cross-sectional study. Data on demographic and clinical factors were collected. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to identify determinants of poor QoL. RESULTS: The entire PD-10 patients had disease duration ranging from 10 to 23 years, with 84.2% of the total cohort skewed to between 10 and 15 years’ duration. The PD-10 patients had great frequency of left-sided onset, increased motor and non-motor symptoms as well as inferior QoL. The more advanced stage of disease in PD-10 patients was associated with motor phenotype, freezing of gait, higher UPDRS sub-scores and levodopa equivalent dose, less balanced confidence, fatigue, anxiety, depression, reduced quality of life and worse Timed Up & Go performance. Self-reported mood symptoms, decreased balance confidence and reduced daily activities were the three factors most closely associated with poorer QoL, but excessive daytime sleepiness and long disease duration additionally contributed to the explanatory power. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report to investigate the clinical characteristics of Chinese PD-10 patients. Our study may elucidate an important clue for understanding PD-10 patients in clinical practice and identifying patients with PD at risk for reduced QoL.