The implications of the foot health status in Parkinson patients: A case–control study

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects bothhealth of the feet, as to gait patterns. This study aimed to find out about footproblems and their impact on self-perceived quality of life and related to foothealth in Parkinson's patients compared to a group of healthy subjects and tomeasure it with Spanish Podiatry Health Questionnaire (PHQ-S). It is about acase–control study in a sample of Parkinson's patients n=62, healthy controlsn=62. The PHQ-S was reported, it describes perception the subject has ineach of podiatric 6 dimensions consulted, assessing appreciation of health sta-tus of interviewee's feet and a self-rated the foot health score on the visual ana-log scale (VAS). There were statistically significant differences (P< 0.05) inthe dimensions that assessed problems with walking and moving, nail trim-ming, concern feet state, and affectation of quality of life related foot health.Regarding the self-perception of state of their feet, Parkinson's patientsperceive a worse state of health of their feet than healthy subjects. The meanvalue was 4.8 (SD 2.2) for Parkinson's patients and 3.8 (SD 2.3) for healthysubjects. In conclusion, patients with PD have problems in walking or moving,foot pain, difficulties in foot hygiene and in cutting for their nails, as well asthe concern they suffer from deterioration in state of their feet affect them anddecrease their quality of life. Podiatric problems in Parkinson's patients have agreat impact in reducing quality of life related to foot health.