Validation of the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale for Parkinson's Disease of Persian Version

We aimed to assess the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the NonMotor Symptoms Scale (NMSS) in Iranian patients with PD.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in patients with PD. After the cross-cultural adaptation of the NMSS, the acceptability, reliability, precision, and validity of the Persian NMSS were evaluated. For this purpose, in addition to NMSS, we used the following measures: Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson's Disease (SCOPA)-Autonomic (SCOPA-AUT), SCOPA-Sleep, Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI) questionnaire, Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-8 questions (PDQ-8), SCOPA-Motor, SCOPA-Psychiatric Complications (SCOPA-PC), SCOPA-Cognition (SCOPA-COG), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Hoehn and Yahr Staging (H and Y), and Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS).

186 patients were enrolled (mean age 64.46 ± 9.9 years; disease duration 5.59 ± 3.99 years; 118 (63.4%) male; mean NMSS score 52.01 ± 38.54). Neither the floor effect (2.7%) nor the ceiling effect (0.5%) was seen in NMSS total score. Cronbach's alpha of total NMSS was 0.84. The test-retest reliability was 0.93 for the NMSS total and 0.81-0.96 for domains. The standard error of measurement (SEM) was lower than half of the standard deviation for NMSS total and all domains. NMSS total showed a high correlation with UPDRS I (r = 0.84), UPDRS II (r = 0.58), PDQ-8 (r = 0.61), BDI (r = 0.71), SCOPA-sleep (r = 0.60), and SCOPA AUT (r = 0.66). NMSS has an acceptable discriminative validity based on disease duration and severity of disease according to H and Y staging.

The Persian NMSS is a valid and reliable measure for evaluating the burden of nonmotor symptoms in Iranian patients with PD.