Centre for Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Front Public Health. 2024 Mar 7;12:1331254. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1331254. eCollection 2024.
Chronic neurological disorders may affect various cognitive processes, including religiosity or superstitious belief. We investigated whether superstitious beliefs are equally prevalent in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), people with epilepsy (PWE), patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and healthy controls (HCs).
From late 2014 to early 2023 we conducted a cross-sectional in-person anonymous paper-based survey at the tertiary clinic of Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos among outpatients and HCs by asking them to ascribe meaning or report belief for 27 culturally adapted statements (9 omens and 18 superstitions). The sum of items that a respondent believes in was labeled the superstition index (SI). The SI was compared between groups by means of the Kruskal-Wallis (H) test and negative binomial regression modeling. A two-step cluster analysis was performed to discern different subgroups based on answers to the items of the SI.
There were 553 respondents who completed the questionnaire (183 PWE, 124 patients with PD, 133 with MS and 113 HCs). Complete SI scores were collected for 479 (86.6%) participants and they were lower in patients with PD ( = 96, Md = 1, IQR = 0-5.75) in comparison to those with epilepsy ( = 155, Md = 6, IQR = 1-14), MS ( = 120, Md = 4, IQR = 0-12) or HCs ( = 108, Md = 4.5, IQR = 1-10), H (3) = 26.780, < 0.001. In a negative binomial regression model ( = 394, likelihood ratio = 35.178, p < 0.001), adjusted for sex, place of residence, income and education, female sex was the only characteristic associated with the SI ( = 0.423, OR = 1.526, 95% CI = 1.148 to 2.028). Both female sex ( = 0.422, OR = 1.525, 95% CI = 1.148 to 2.026) and Parkinson's disease ( = -0.428, OR = 0.652, 95% CI = 0.432 to 0.984) were significant predictors of the SI when age was removed from the model. Two-step cluster analysis resulted in individuals with PD being grouped into "extreme non-believer," "non-believer" and "believer" rather than "non-believer" and "believer" clusters characteristic for PWE, patients with MS and HCs.
Our study suggests that individuals with PD believe in less superstitions than patients with MS, PWE or HCs. The results of this investigation should be independently confirmed after adjusting for PD-specific variables.
慢性神经障碍可能会影响各种认知过程，包括宗教信仰或迷信。我们调查了迷信是否在帕金森病（PD）患者、癫痫患者（PWE）、多发性硬化症（MS）患者和健康对照组（HCs）中同样普遍。
我们从 2014 年末到 2023 年初，在维尔纽斯大学桑塔罗斯临床医院的三级诊所进行了一项横断面现场匿名纸质问卷调查，通过询问门诊患者和 HCs，让他们对 27 个文化适应的陈述（9 个预兆和 18 个迷信）赋予意义或报告信仰。受访者相信的项目总和被标记为迷信指数（SI）。通过 Kruskal-Wallis（H）检验和负二项回归模型比较组间 SI 的差异。采用两步聚类分析根据 SI 项目的答案识别不同的亚组。
共有 553 名受访者完成了问卷（183 名 PWE、124 名 PD 患者、133 名 MS 患者和 113 名 HCs）。对 479 名（86.6%）参与者收集了完整的 SI 评分，与癫痫患者（=155，Md=6，IQR=1-14）、MS 患者（=120，Md=4，IQR=0-12）或 HCs（=108，Md=4.5，IQR=1-10）相比，PD 患者的 SI 评分较低（=96，Md=1，IQR=0-5.75），H（3）=26.780，<0.001。在负二项回归模型（=394，似然比=35.178，p<0.001）中，调整了性别、居住地、收入和教育水平，女性是唯一与 SI 相关的特征（=0.423，OR=1.526，95%CI=1.148 至 2.028）。当从模型中去除年龄时，女性（=0.422，OR=1.525，95%CI=1.148 至 2.026）和帕金森病（= -0.428，OR=0.652，95%CI=0.432 至 0.984）都是 SI 的显著预测因素。两步聚类分析结果表明，PD 患者被分为“极端非信徒”、“非信徒”和“信徒”，而不是像 PWE、MS 患者和 HCs 那样分为“非信徒”和“信徒”聚类。
我们的研究表明，PD 患者比 MS、PWE 或 HCs 患者更不迷信。这项研究的结果应该在调整 PD 特定变量后独立确认。
