Tila Warner-Rosen1, Christopher Goetz1, Michelle Tosin1, David Gonzalez1
1Rush University Medical Center
Objective:
To quantify how social connection relates to Parkinson’s Disease (PD) motor and non-motor features.
Background:
Loneliness is a negatively experienced discrepancy between desired and actual social connection. Loneliness longitudinally predicts motor, cognitive, and emotional decline in older adults. No study has used motor ratings with validated loneliness scales to study loneliness in a PD population.
Design/Methods:
Consenting participants diagnosed with an MDS-revised Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale, Part III (MDS-UPDRS-III) were recruited to complete questionnaires at an academic PD center.
The 3-item UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS3) and the 11-item De Jong-Gierveld Loneliness Scale (dJGL) measure loneliness. The Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ8), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2), and Cohen Social Network Index (SNI) measure PD-related quality of life (QoL), depression, and social network size. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric Spearman correlations were computed in R (v4.2.3).
Results:
119 individuals were mostly male (62.2%), Non-Hispanic White (89.5%), older (Mage = 66.9), with 6.5 years since PD diagnosis. Both ULS3 (M = 4.38, SD = 1.69) and dJGL (M = 12.97, SD = 9.02) show higher loneliness levels (54.7% and 62.4%) than non-PD populations. Both loneliness scales are strongly correlated (r =0.71, p < .001). Loneliness is not significantly related to objective motor severity for either ULS3 (r=-0.06, p = .70) or dJGL (r=-0.06, p = .67). Network size correlates negatively with both loneliness scales (rULS3 = -0.25 p =.02, rdJGL=-0.36, p = <.001). QoL and depression both correlate positively with the loneliness scales (rULS3= 0.44, p <.001, rdJGL=0.35, p <.001, and rULS3=0.53, p < .001, rdJGL=0.50, p <.001).
Conclusions:
Results suggest PD patients score higher on loneliness scales than non-PD populations. Depression, QoL, and social network are stronger predictors of loneliness than PD motor symptoms. Given its prevalence and known health impacts, loneliness in the PD population merits further exploration.