Functional outcomes in older patients after Parkinson's disease diagnosis in Japan: The LIFE study

The association between care needs level (CNL) and functional outcomes after diagnosis in older patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) is unclear.

Using health insurance claims and the Japanese Long-Term Care (LTC) data from 12 municipalities in Japan, PD patients aged ≥ 65 years old were identified between April 2014 and March 2022. CNL was classified as no care needed (NCN), support level (SL), CNL1 (low level), CNL2-3, and CNL4-5 (fully dependent) based on the total estimated daily care hours as defined by the national standard criteria. The primary outcomes were changes in CNL and all-cause death one year after PD diagnosis by baseline CNL at diagnosis.

Of the 11,270 PD patients, 39.8% had NCN, 27.6% SL&CNL1, 18.8% CNL2-3, and13.9% CNL4-5 at PD diagnosis. One-year after diagnosis, there were NCN 28.2%, SL&CNL1 24.9%, CNL2-3 19.2%, CNL4-5 17.6% (i.e., 61.7% required care need), and all-cause death 10.1%. Compared with NCN patients at diagnosis, patients with SL&CNL1, CNL2-3, and CNL4-5 had an increased risk of all-cause death one-year after diagnosis (adjusted hazard ratio [95% confidence interval]: 1.58 [1.29-1.93], 2.83 [2.32-3.46], and 5.80 [4.76-7.06]), assessed by using Cox proportional hazard models.

Baseline CNL in older Japanese patients was associated with all-cause death even one-year after PD diagnosis, and high CNL was associated with a high risk of all-cause death.