Parkinson Anxiety Scale: A Validation Study for the Brazilian Population

OBJECTIVE: The Parkinson Anxiety Scale (PAS) was developed to measure the severity of anxiety symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), and it has not yet been adapted and validated in Portuguese. Thus, this study evaluated the reliability and validity of a translated and adapted version of the PAS for the Brazilian population of PD patients. METHODS: The Parkinson Anxiety Scale – Brazilian Version (PAS-BV) was completed by 55 patients with PD. The reliability (test-retest reliability, interrater reliability and internal consistency) and construct validity of the PAS-BV were assessed by comparing it with the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Parkinson’s Disease Fatigue Scale (PFS) and the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) part III. RESULTS: Patients with PD had an average age of 64.51 ± 9.20 years and had PD for an average of 6.98 ± 5.02 years. The reliability of the PAS-BV was 0.83, and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) (retest-test) was 0.88. The scale presented good convergent validity with the BAI (r(s) = 0.82, p < 0.05). It also presented good divergent validity with the PFS (r(s) = 0.24, p > 0.05) and the UPDRS part II (r(s) = -0.10, p > 0.05), part III (r(s) = -0.21, p > 0.05), and part IV (r(s) = 0.03, p > 0.05), as indicated by the absence of significant correlations. However, there was a significant correlation between the PAS-BV and part I of the UPDRS (r(s) = 0.67, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The PAS-BV presents substantial reliability and validity for patients with PD without dementia.