[A follow-up study on effects of ADL deterioration on QOL in patients with neurological intractable diseases].

This follow-up study examined correlating factors, including change of activity of daily living (ADL), which are associated with subjective quality of life (QOL) in patients with neurological intractable diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, spinocerebellar degeneration and Parkinson disease.Baseline information of 159 patients with above mentioned three intractable diseases registered by two public health centers in Niigata and Fukuoka Prefectures was obtained in 1993-1994, and they were followed to 1995. At the end of follow-up, 124 subjects were interviewed by public health nurses using the 27 item-subjective QOL scale for patients with neurological intractable diseases, previously confirmed for reliability and validity.Low level of ADL at the time of registry and deterioration of ADL after the registry were independently related to low level of subjective QOL.It may be necessary to minimize the ADL deterioration, in order to maintain a high subjective QOL of patients with neurological intractable diseases.