2026 American Academy of Neurology Abstract Website

Objective:

This review provides a narrative about the experiences of women living with Parkinson’s Disease with particular attention to their lived experiences in seeking and receiving care.

Background:

Women with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) experience disparities in care, yet little research about PD focuses exclusively on women. We provide a review about the experiences of women living with PD to increase clinician knowledge about how interactions with seeking and receiving healthcare affect women's experiences with a chronic condition.

Design/Methods:

We performed a systematic search for articles in Medline (PubMed), PsycInfo, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Web of Science for women/females with PD. Fifteen articles were eligible from a total of 1969. Included studies centered on the experiences of women with PD in seeking or receiving care. Studies were excluded if they lacked gender-specific analysis or were conducted outside of the United States or Canada. We qualitatively coded eligible articles using an inductive thematic approach to reflect care-seeking and receiving experiences.

Results:

1) Receiving Care: Women with PD experience barriers in receiving care, including physician bias, and reduced access to specialists such as neurologists, involved in their care. Conversely, women with PD who were able to receive care from supportive teams and specialist physicians felt more engaged and wanted to continue to follow up and receive care.

2) Seeking Care: Women with PD are more likely to have higher rates of skilled nursing-provided care or care in nursing facilities and experienced delays in seeking specialist care.

Conclusions:

There remains limited research focused specifically on women’s experiences living with PD. This scoping review encourages more qualitative research of women with PD to improve access to and quality of care and emphasizes a patient-centered approach to treating and caring for people with PD.