The New Satisfaction with Life and Treatment Scale (SLTS-7) in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Sauerbier, Anna^{a; b; *} | Bachon, Pia^a | Ambrosio, Leire^c | Loehrer, Philipp A.^d | Rizos, Alexandra^{b; e} | Jost, Stefanie T.^a | Gronostay, Alexandra^a | Konitsioti, Agni^a | Barbe, Michael T.^a | Fink, Gereon R.^{a; f} | Ashkan, Keyoumars^e | Nimsky, Christopher^g | Visser-Vandewalle, Veerle^h | Chaudhuri, K. Ray^{b; e; i} | Timmermann, Lars^d | Martinez-Martin, Pablo^{j; 1} | Dafsari, Haidar S.^{a; *; 1} | on behalf of EUROPAR and the International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society Non-Motor Parkinson’s Disease Study Group

Affiliations: [a] University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Department of Neurology, Cologne, Germany | [b] Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom | [c] NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Wessex, School of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, United Kingdom | [d] Department of Neurology, University Hospital Giessen and Marburg, Campus Marburg, Marburg, Germany | [e] Parkinson Foundation International Centre of Excellence, King’s College Hospital, London, United Kingdom | [f] Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-3), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany | [g] Department of Neurosurgery, University Marburg, Marburg, Germany | [h] University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Department of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, Cologne, Germany | [i] NIHR Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre and Dementia Biomedical Research Unit, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London | [j] Center for Networked Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), Carlos III Institute of Health, Madrid, Spain

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Anna Sauerbier, MD/PhD and Haidar S. Dafsari, MD, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Cologne, Kerpener Str. 62, 50937 Cologne, Germany. Tel.: +49 221 478 86180 / +49 221 478 37445; E-mails: [email protected] (Anna Sauerbier), [email protected] (Haidar S. Dafsari).

Note: [1] Shared last authorship.

Abstract: Background:The satisfaction with life and, in particular, with treatment in Parkinson’s disease (PD) is understudied. Objective:To explore a new 7-item rating tool assessing satisfaction with life and treatment (SLTS-7) in PD. Methods:In this cross-sectional, multi-center study, including patients screened for advanced therapies, psychometric characteristics of the SLTS-7 were analyzed. An exploratory factor analysis identified the underlying factorial structure of the SLTS-7. Results:117 patients were included, and the data quality of the SLTS-7 was excellent (computable data 100%), and acceptability measures satisfied standard criteria. Besides the global assessment (item 1), the exploratory factor analysis produced item 2 (physical satisfaction) as an independent item and two factors among the remaining items: items 3–5 (psycho-social satisfaction), and items 6 and 7 (treatment satisfaction). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.89, indicative of high internal consistency. The SLTS-7 total score correlated moderately with motor symptoms and weakly with non-motor symptoms total scores. SLTS-7 showed the highest correlations with the European Quality of Life with 5 items (EQ-5D) visual analog scale (0.43–0.58, p < 0.01), indicating a moderate convergent validity. The SLTS-7 significantly increased with higher non-motor symptoms burden levels (p = 0.002). Conclusion:Life satisfaction in PD covers three specific aspects, namely physical, psycho-social, and treatment satisfaction. The new SLTS-7 is a valid, reliable, and easy-to-use tool to assess satisfaction with life and treatment in patients with PD screened for advanced therapies. Longitudinal studies analyzing the effect of advanced PD treatment on life and treatment satisfaction are warranted.

Keywords: Non-motor symptoms, patient-reported outcomes, quality of life, satisfaction with life, satisfaction with treatment

DOI: 10.3233/JPD-212823

Journal: Journal of Parkinson's Disease, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 453-464, 2022