Crosschecking the subjective everyday Parkinson's experience among patients and their caregiving spouses: French versions of the Belastungsfragebogen Parkinson Kurzversion (Bela-P-k and Bela-A-k).

BACKGROUND

Parkinson's disease (PD) affects all dimensions of the patient's and the caregiver's daily life. There are two questionnaires in German, Bela-A-k (for caregivers) and Bela-P-k (for PD patients), that can be used to assess the PD-related psychosocial burden in a dyad. The patient's and the caregiver's perspective of living with PD can be crosschecked. Four dimensions are explored: physical performance, emotional load, social relationships, and couple/family life.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of the study was to translate these questionnaires into French and to test them among patients and caregivers.

METHODS

The questionnaires were translated from German into French by forward and backward translation, followed by a cultural crosscheck. Participants were invited to test the consensual French version in its online administered version created via Lime Survey® software. Participants filled out the questionnaires twice (five-day interval) according to the test-retest method. Data analysis was performed with SPSS software.

RESULTS

Thirty dyads were recruited and eighteen completed the study. Bela-A-K showed strong temporal stability, though it was weak for the social relationships dimension. Bela-P-k showed strong internal consistency, but significant test-retest differences for ten items due to day-by-day changes in patient status.

CONCLUSIONS

The questionnaires are useful and reliable for dyad-centered follow-up in case of PD. Some items of the Bela-P-k were simplified to improve its temporal stability, considering the patient's changing status through the day. The items concerning social relationships were adjusted for the Bela-A-k.