Effects of Disability and Self-care Agency on the Activities of Daily Living in Patients with Essential Tremor

Objective: Essential tremor (ET) is the most common movement disorder in the general population. Approximately, 90% of patients have upper extremity tremors. Patients with ET generally have a problem in motor control and some have serious problems in eating, drinking, writing, and other activities of daily living (ADL). Thus, ET may cause disability and self-care problems in their lives. Recent studies showed that ADL was impaired in 73% of patients. This study aimed to determine the effects of disability and self-care agency on ADL in patients with ET. Materials and Methods: This study includes 50 patients with ET. Brief disability questionnaire, self-care agency scale, Katz index of independence in ADL, and Fahn Tolasa Marin tremor scale were evaluated in the patients. Results: Among all patients, 58% (n=29) were female. The mean age of patients was 62.1 years. In addition, 72% of patients had hand tremors. More than 52% of patients had stage 2 diseases according to the Fahn Tolasa Marin tremor scale. Disability was detected in 62% of patients. In general, the mean disability scores were significantly higher in female patients compared to males. A positive correlation was found between disability and ADL. Moreover, a significant relationship between self-care agency and ADL was found. Conclusion: Our study shows that disability increases as the stage of the disease progress. In addition, as the disability due to ET becomes more severe, the selfcare agency of patients decreases. Moreover, their dependence on ADL has been observed.