HealthDay Information — Parkinson illness (PD) signs and administration practices have been markedly affected by COVID-19, based on a research printed on-line Jan. 21 in npj Parkinson’s Illness.
Megan P. Feeney, M.P.H., from the Parkinson’s Basis in New York Metropolis, and colleagues surveyed 1,342 sufferers with PD in Might 2020 to evaluate emotional and behavioral penalties of the general public well being insurance policies carried out to mitigate the unfold of extreme acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and to discover elements contributing to accessing well being care through different means, similar to telehealth.
The researchers discovered that roughly half of respondents reported a unfavorable change in PD signs, significantly round emotional well-being, with 66.5 p.c experiencing nervousness or anxiousness, 50.9 p.c reporting feeling down or depressed, and 66.2 p.c reporting sleep disturbances. There was a big uptick in telehealth use, which elevated from 9.7 p.c previous to the pandemic to 63.5 p.c in the course of the pandemic. Telehealth use was related to greater revenue and better training. Telehealth was extra usually used for physician’s appointments than for bodily, occupational, speech, or psychological well being therapies. Practically half of respondents (46 p.c) reported a choice for persevering with to make use of telehealth at all times or generally after the pandemic had ended. A want to proceed utilizing telehealth was related to having acquired assist/instruction for telehealth and having a care accomplice, buddy, or member of the family to assist them with the telehealth go to.
“The survey highlights PD-specific points and potential coping mechanisms, together with on-line social assist and telemedicine to cut back the burden attributable to the pandemic,” a coauthor stated in an announcement.
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