Neurological Sciences

, Volume 34, Issue 1, pp 75–78 | Cite as

Bedside cognitive assessments and falls risk in Parkinson’s disease

  • Joong-Seok Kim
  • Wooyoung Jang
  • Jin Whan Cho
  • Jin Young Ahn
  • Hee-Tae Kim
Brief Communication
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Cognitive deficits may contribute to falls in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and these deficits may be risk factors for falls. However, their association with falls has been generally studied in patients with continuous gait problems. There have been few studies in PD patients without postural instability. In addition, the effectiveness of various simple bedside cognitive tests in predicting falls has not been established. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of three bedside cognitive tests in consecutive patients with PD without postural instability. Of the 119 patients, 39 experienced falls during the follow-up period. Of the bedside cognitive assessment methods examined, only the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score was significantly lower in the group of fallers than in the group of non-fallers. This result suggests that the MoCA is effective as a bedside test for evaluating the risk of falls.

Keywords

Parkinson’s disease Fall Cognition Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the Korean Health Technology R&D Project, Ministry for Health Welfare & Family Affairs, Republic of Korea (A101712).

Conflict of interest

None.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  • Joong-Seok Kim
    • 1
  • Wooyoung Jang
    • 2
  • Jin Whan Cho
    • 3
  • Jin Young Ahn
    • 4
  • Hee-Tae Kim
    • 2
    • 5
  1. 1.Department of Neurology, College of MedicineThe Catholic University of KoreaSeoulSouth Korea
  2. 2.Department of NeurologyHanyang University College of MedicineSeoulSouth Korea
  3. 3.Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical CenterSungkyunkwan University School of MedicineSeoulSouth Korea
  4. 4.Department of NeurologySeoul Medical CenterSeoulSouth Korea
  5. 5.Department of NeurologyHanyang University HospitalSeoulKorea

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