Measuring the impact of Parkinson's disease: an occupational therapy perspective

Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting over 100,000 Canadians. With advances in medical and surgical treatments, clients are living longer and fuller lives. However, as the disease progresses those with Parkinson's continue to face a variety of deficits in their occupational performance. Although this is the domain of occupational therapists, very little is described in the occupational therapy literature related to Parkinson's. This article addresses this void by describing these deficits and current measurement tools that can be used to evaluate the impact on people living with Parkinson's disease. Although several tools are cited, three tools are recommended for an occupational therapy evaluation of individuals with Parkinson's disease: the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale and the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire.