The Validity and Reliability of a Screening Questionnaire for Parkinson's Disease in a Community.
10.3961/jpmph.2010.43.1.9
- Author:
Jong Hun KIM
1
;
Hae Kwan CHEONG
;
Chong Sik LEE
;
Sung Eun YI
;
Kun Woo PARK
Author Information
1. Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Korea. hkcheong@skku.edu
- Publication Type:Original Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- Keywords:
Screening;
Questionnaire;
Validity;
Reliability;
Parkinson's disease;
Community
- From:Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
2010;43(1):9-17
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVES: Parkinson's disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases in the elderly population. In order to estimate the prevalence of Parkinson's disease in the community, the application of a good screening tool is essential. We evaluated the validity and reliability of a Parkinson's disease screening questionnaire and propose an alternative measure to improve its validity for use in community surveys. METHODS: We designed the study in a three-phase approach consisting of a screening questionnaire, neurologic examination, and confirmatory examination. A repeated survey was administered to patients with disease detected in the community and on 150 subjects. We examined internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha test, test-retest reliability using the kappa statistic, and validity using sensitivity, specificity, and ROC curves. Unadjusted odds ratios were utilized for the estimation of weights for each questionnaire item. RESULTS: The Cronbach's alpha of the questionnaire was 0.708. The kappa statistic for test-retest reliability was good to generally fair in most of the items. When newly proposed weighting scores were used, the optimum cut-off value was 7/8. When cut-off value was 5/6 for surveying prevalence in a community, the sensitivity was 0.98, and the specificity was 0.61, with simultaneous improvement in reliability. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend 5/6 as the ideal cut-off value for the survey of PD prevalence in community. This questionnaire designed for the Korean community could help future epidemiologic studies of PD.
