Housing and Health : Very Old People with Self-Reported Parkinson’s Disease versus Controls

Abstract EN

Objectives.

To explore whether aspects of housing and health among very old people with self-reported Parkinson’s disease (PD) differ from matched controls.

Methods.

Data from the ENABLE-AGE Survey Study were used to identify people with self-reported PD (n=20) and three matched controls/individual (n=60).

The matching criteria were age (mean = 82 years), sex, country, and type of housing.

The analyses targeted problems in activities of daily living, objective and perceived aspects of housing, for example, number of environmental barriers, accessibility (i.e., person-environment fit), and usability.

Results.

The number of physical environmental barriers did not differ (P=0.727) between the samples.

The PD sample had more (P<0.001) accessibility problems than controls and perceived their homes as less (P=0.003) usable in relation to activities.

They were less independent and had more functional limitations (median 5 versus 2; P<0.001), and 70% experienced loss of stamina or poor balance.

Conclusions.

Due to the fact that they have more functional limitations than very old people in general, those with self-reported PD live in housing with more accessibility problems.

This explorative study has implications for rehabilitation as well as societal planning, but larger studies including people with a confirmed PD diagnosis are needed.