Staging Parkinson's disease according to the MNCD classification correlates with caregiver burden

Abstract

Background and objectiveRecently, we demonstrated that staging Parkinson's disease (PD) with a novel simple classification called MNCD, based on four axes (motor, non‐motor, cognition, and dependency) and five stages, correlated with disease severity and patients’ quality of life. Here, we analyzed the correlation of MNCD staging with PD caregiver's status.Patients and methodsData from the baseline visit of PD patients and their principal caregiver recruited from 35 centers in Spain from the COPPADIS cohort from January 2016 to November 2017 were used to apply the MNCD total score (from 0 to 12) and MNCD stages (from 1 to 5) in this cross‐sectional analysis. Caregivers completed the Zarit Caregiver Burden Inventory (ZCBI), Caregiver Strain Index (CSI), Beck Depression Inventory‐II (BDI‐II), PQ‐10, and EUROHIS‐QOL 8‐item index (EUROHIS‐QOL8).ResultsTwo hundred and twenty‐four PD patients (63 ± 9.6 years old; 61.2% males) and their caregivers (58.5 ± 12.1 years old; 67.9% females) were included. The frequency of MNCD stages was 1, 7.6%; 2, 58.9%; 3, 31.3%; and 4–5, 2.2%. A more advanced MNCD stage was associated with a higher score on the ZCBI (p < .0001) and CSI (p < .0001), and a lower score on the PQ‐10 (p = .001), but no significant differences were observed in the BDI‐II (p = .310) and EUROHIS‐QOL8 (p = .133). Moderate correlations were observed between the MNCD total score and the ZCBI (r = .496; p < .0001), CSI (r = .433; p < .0001), and BDI‐II (r = .306; p < .0001) in caregivers.ConclusionStaging PD according to the MNCD classification is correlated with caregivers’ strain and burden.

Correlation between the MNCD classification-based staging of Parkinson’s disease and quality of life: a cross-sectional study

“…Moreover, the present study revealed that a majority of patients were categorized as stage 2 according to the H&Y staging, while most patients fell into stage 3 based on the MNCD classification and staging. Our study also demonstrated positive correlations between PDQ-39 score and both MNCD staging and H&Y staging, with the observed positive correlation between PDQ-39 scores and H&Y staging being consistent with numerous previous studies (Santos-García et al 2023a , b ; Song et al 2014 ; Rahman et al 2008 ). Importantly though, we observed a stronger association between the PDQ-39 total scores and the MNCD staging.…”

“…To date, the utilization of the MNCD classification has been limited to a few PD studies (Santos García et al 2021 ; Santos-García et al 2023a , b ), with no existing reports comparing it to the H&Y staging. Our findings in this study demonstrate a stronger correlation between the MNCD classification and the PDQ-39 compared to the H&Y staging.…”

“…To date, the MNCD classification has only been utilized in a limited number of PD studies (Santos García et al 2021 ; Santos-García et al 2023a , b ). However, its ability to accurately identify key symptoms and stages in PD patients remains unclear.…”