Necessity and concern beliefs about medication in patients with Parkinson disease- A cross-section study from North...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease requiring long-term pharmacological management. Patients' beliefs about medications represent important psychological factors that may influence their engagement with treatment. The present study examined medication beliefs and their associated factors in patients with Parkinson. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 120 PD patients (aged ≥ 20 years) on antiparkinson drugs for >1 year, using purposive sampling. Medication beliefs were assessed using Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ); disease severity was measured with the Hoehn & Yahr (H&Y) stage and MDS-UPDRS scale. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, independent t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation and multiple linear regression, with significance level p < 0.05. Necessity (17.12) and Concern (14.71) scores declined with age, longer disease duration, higher H&Y stage, and higher MDS-UPDRS total scores, whereas higher daily pill burden and increased LEDD were associated with higher Necessity and Concern scores (p < 0.05). Female patients reported significantly higher concern scores compared to males. In multivariate analyses, illness duration and LEDD emerged as independent predictors of both necessity and concern beliefs. These findings suggest that medication beliefs in Parkinson's change with illness progression and treatment complexity. Assessing these beliefs may help identify patients at risk for suboptimal treatment engagement and guide the development of targeted, belief-focused interventions to improve long-term treatment outcomes.