| Sub-title | |
| Authors | J Gerada P Ferry N Calleja |
| Abstract | Objective: To evaluate the knowledge of Parkinson's disease patients and their carers on the disease before and after a series of educational classes. Design: An explorative interventional study. Setting: The Geriatric day hospital at Zammit Clapp, Malta. Participants: 10 cognitively intact Parkinson's disease patients aged 60 years and over together with their informal carers. Method: 10 weekly one hour lectures were delivered to all participants. They were asked to complete a 16 question True/ False format questionnaire (in English or Maltese) on Parkinson's disease before and after the 10 week course of teaching. Results: Complete data sets were available for 7 patients and their carers. Using the Mann-Whitney U-test, the mean score of the patients was 11.9 and 11.3 (out of a potential total score of 16) before and after the course respectively (p=0.53), while the mean score of the carers was 12.0 and 11.1 before and after the course respectively (p=0.80). Grouping both patients and carers together, the mean score was 11.9 and 11.2 before and after the course respectively (p=0.43). Conclusion: At this stage, there was no documented improvement in the knowledge of Parkinson's disease through an interdisciplinary Parkinson's disease class for patients and their carers attending a geriatric day hospital. Larger studies are however warranted in order to further test this hypothesis. |
Published in: | |
| Journal | Malta Medical Journal |
| Volume | 18 Supplement |
| Page | |
| Date | 01/12/2006 |
| Link to journal | |
| Key words | carer, day hospital, knowledge, parkinsons disease |