Short report
Validating a screening questionnaire for parkinsonism in
Australia
Daniel Kam Yin Chana, W T Hungb, A Wonga, E Hua, R G Beranc
a Geriatric
Department, Parkes Block 2 East, Prince of Wales Hospital, High Street,
Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia, b Foundation for Australian Resources
and School of Mathematical Science, University of Technology, Sydney,
Broadway NSW 2007, Australia, c Neurology Department, Liverpool Hospital,
Liverpool NSW, Australia
Correspondence to: Dr D K Y Chan d.chan{at}unsw.edu.au
Received 5 August 1999 and in revised form 28 February 2000;
Accepted 6 March 2000
Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder
in elderly people. Epidemiological studies of the disease can be labour
intensive. A two phase design including a screening questionnaire as
the first phase has become a popular method in prevalence studies of
Parkinson's disease. Such a design has many advantages including less
work for assessing physicians and enhanced recruitment of people to be
screened. However, its wider application may be questioned because
validation has been limited to samples that are drawn from hospitals
(or clinics) and may be inappropriate for a community setting. This
study assesses whether validating screening questionnaire by using a
hospital sample yields the same result as a community based sample.
Furthermore, it seeks to establish whether the screening instrument can
be simplified to involve less questions. The findings show that some of
the questions used in the screening phase yield different responses
when comparing a hospital group with a community group. This study also
provides a simplified model of questions that may be relevant for
screening in the community setting.
Keywords: Parkinson's disease; screening questionnaire; validation; Australia
© 2000 by Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
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