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The relationship between meaning in life and apathy in people with Parkinson’s disease: a cross-sectional analysis

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Abstract

Background

Apathy remains a common and problematic neuropsychiatric feature associated with Parkinson’s disease resulting in reductions in health-related quality of life, and effective treatments remain elusive. Meaning in life (MIL) has been implicated in a variety of positive health outcomes, and this study assesses the relationship between apathy and MIL while hoping to identify a potential new interventional target.

Methods

A cross-sectional sample of 237 PwPD completed surveys to evaluate MIL and a variety of non-motor symptoms (NMS), and a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to evaluate relationships of interest.

Results

Correlational analysis indicated the presence of meaning in life was statistically negatively and moderately to strongly correlated with apathy (r = − 0.60, p < .001). Hierarchical regression analysis results showed that presence of meaning in life explained a total of 48% of variance in apathy. More specifically, the presence of meaning in life (β = − 0.43, p < .001) was associated with apathy after controlling for sociodemographic and other potentially confounding variables.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates the significant negative relationship between MIL and apathy. Considering the lack of effective treatments for apathy, which is one of the most disabling symptoms affecting PwPD, identifying a potential target for intervention is exciting. MIL has the potential to offer clinicians a novel intervention to provide a much-needed treatment option to improve both apathy and HRQoL.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rehabilitation and Health Services, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle #311456, Denton, TX, 76203-5017, USA

    Bradley McDaniels & Kirsteen Edereka-Great

  2. Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Beatrice Lee

  3. Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education, University of WI—Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Stuart Rumrill

  4. Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Indu Subramanian

  5. PADRECC, West Los Angeles, Veterans Administration, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Indu Subramanian

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  1. Bradley McDaniels
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  2. Beatrice Lee
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  4. Kirsteen Edereka-Great
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  5. Indu Subramanian
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Correspondence to Bradley McDaniels.

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We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Statement of human and animal rights

The procedures in this study followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

Informed Consent

All participants were provided an opportunity to review and accept or not accept a consent document describing the research procedure and participants rights prior to beginning the survey. Written informed consent was obtained from the patient(s) for their anonymized information to be published in this article.

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The Study protocol (#20-434) was approved on 7/29/2020 by the University of North Texas, Office of Research Integrity Institutional Review Board.

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McDaniels, B., Lee, B., Rumrill, S. et al. The relationship between meaning in life and apathy in people with Parkinson’s disease: a cross-sectional analysis. Aging Clin Exp Res 35, 91–99 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-022-02275-w

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