Patterns of Outcome Measurement in Parkinson's Disease Clinical Trials.
The study examines the pattern of use and clinimetric
properties of clinical endpoints used in randomized
trials for Parkinson's disease (PD). Randomized drug
trials for PD were identified through a Medline
search conducted from January 1966 until August 1998.
The endpoints used in these trials were abstracted.
Reports examining the clinimetric properties of the
disease-specific scales used in these trials were
also abstracted. Data regarding the consistency,
accuracy, discrimination and feasibility of scales
used in at least 10% of trials were determined. One
hundred and thirty-seven articles met the inclusion
criteria; 70.8% of trials used some clinical scale
for PD as an endpoint. The Unified Parkinson's
Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) was the most commonly
used scale (32.8%). Factors independently associated
with the use of the UPDRS included: the study
location in the US, mean age of subjects over 62.7
years and publication after 1994. The UPDRS was more
thoroughly studied and superior in most clinimetric
domains compared to scales developed earlier. Few
studies included generic health status (2.9%) or
cognitive measures (16.8%) as secondary endpoints.
There have been definite improvements in the area of
disease-specific measurement in PD trials since the
introduction of the UPDRS. The results of studies
that used instruments with poor or unreported
clinimetric properties should be critically
interpreted. Copyright 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel
Neuroepidemiology 2000 Mar;19(2):100-108
Mitchell SL, Harper DW, Lau A, Bhalla R
Loeb Health Research Institute, The Ottawa Hospital, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
PMID: 10686534
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10686534&dopt=Abstract>
janet paterson
52 now / 41 dx / 37 onset
a new voice: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/
613 256 8340 PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario Canada K0A 1A0
