Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Burden During the COVID-19 Pandemic in People with Parkinson's Disease in Germany

Background:Adherence to measures that have been adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial to control the spread of the coronavirus.Methods:Semi-structured telephone interviews were performed with 99 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and 21 controls to explore knowledge, attitudes, practices, and burden in order to elucidate nonadherence to preventive measures.Results:The majority of patients understood the preventive measures and felt sufficiently informed. Analysis of qualitative answers, however, showed that about 30% of patients had an insufficient level of knowledge, which was not associated with educational level, cognitive disorders, or depression. Changes in behaviour were reported by 73 patients (99% performed at least one specific preventive behavior, and 86.9% have reduced social contacts and stayed home). A closer analysis of qualitative answers showed that 27.3% of patients continued to meet relatives face-to-face almost daily. Anxiety and worries about the current situation were reported by 58.6% of patients; 31.3% complained about a decrease in their mobility since the beginning of the restrictions, mainly because of worsening of PD and because regular therapies (e.g., physiotherapy) were canceled.Conclusions:About 30% of PD patients are nonadherent to preventive measures. Use of simple dichotomous questions overestimates adherence to preventive measures in patients with PD.