Assessing quality of life in Parkinson's disease: Can a short-form questionnaire be useful?

Various instruments with good psychometric properties have been developed for the assessment of health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) in Parkinson's disease, (PD); however, in everyday practice a brief questionnaire is needed for quick screening of patients. We present the process of development and validation of the Greek version of PD questionnaire‐8 (PDQ‐8GrV), which is an 8‐item scale derived from a well‐known measure for the evaluation of HRQoL in PD, the PD questionnaire (PDQ‐39). PDQ‐8 GrV was applied to 228 nondemented Greek PD patients. Data from PDQ‐39 were also collected from these patients for comparisons between the total scores of the two scales. Detailed statistical analysis showed that PD‐8GrV has psychometric properties analogous to its parent questionnaire. © 2003 Movement Disorder Society