An evaluation of health support activities at Health Centers for patients with Parkinson's disease and other neurological intractable diseases

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Several surveys which were conducted for this study yielded the following findings :1) The rate of patients with neurological intractable diseases (NIDs) who were registered at Health Centers (HCs) in Osaka Prefecture was 54.3 per 100,000 total population. Of these patients, 35.7% were visited by public health nurses (PHNs) during the fiscal year 1994. Of all patients with intractable diseases (IDs) visited by PHNs during the year, 74% were suffering from NIDs. On the other hand, the number of patients with NIDs accounted for only 22.5% of all patients with all IDs. PHNs are thus giving priority to supportive activities for patients with NIDs.2) A mail survey to which 645 patients with Parkinson's disease responded revealed a close relationship between a positive attitude towards the illness and participation in group work activities offered by HCs. One possible explanation of this relationship is that the group work helps generate a positive attitude in these patients.3) A home-visit survey regarding subjective QOL (quality of life) was carried out with collaboration of 85 patients with NIDs. Multiple regression analysis showed that the QOL score correlated significantly with the following variables : whether the patient tries to obtain knowledge about the disease, work situation, financial status of the household, level of ADL,and the frequency of going out of the home. It seems that creating a suitable environment through health support activities by HCs is an important factor in the improvement of QOL of patients with NIDs. 10.