Functioning of workers with Parkinson’s disease: an observational study to define a tailored ICF checklist.

Background and Aim: Parkinson’s disease (PD) has a prevalence of 108-257/100,000 in Europe, with an estimated cost of 7577 € per person/ year. High social impact and burden of the PD increase the importance of defining social and medical factors that allow people with PD to continue to work longer. Aim of this study was to develop a tailored checklist, to describe functioning profile of people with PD in working settings. Method: Working PD patients were enrolled in a longitudinal study, with a follow-up at 6 months. The International Classification of Function- ing Disability and Health (ICF) checklist was used to collect data in both time-points. ICF categories reported as problems in at least 20% of the sample were selected. They were compared with the 89 items of ICF-based checklist developed for the labour sector: common categories were included in a tailored checklist of PD workers. Results: Twenty patients with Parkinson’s disease were enrolled, and 14 completed the follow up. A total of 71 ICF categories were identified as problems by 20% of the sample: 26 categories from body functions, one category from body structures, 31 categories from activity and par- ticipation and 13 from environmental factors. An ICF-based checklist of 64 items tailored for workers with PD was developed: 21 categories from body functions, one category from body structures, 29 from activity and participation and 13 from environmental factors. Conclusion: This tailored ICF-checklist could be useful to improve com- munication among health and social workers. Moreover it allows a more accurate and standardized assessment of patients with PD by reducing interviewer bias.