The influence of frontal lobe function on falling in patients with Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether cognitive dysfunction, especially frontal lobe dysfunction, is a predictive factor of falls in patients with Parkinson’s disease（PD）. We recruited 81 PD hospitalized patients. The severity of patients was evaluated by Hoehn-Yahr（H-Y）staging. All patients were ranked into stages 2 to 4, and all patients could walk without aids. One month prior to hospitalization, the patients were categorized according to their fall history: Group 1 consisted of patients without falls, Group 2 consisted of patients with one or two falls, and Group 3 consisted of patients with more than two falls. Spearman’s rank correlation analyses were used to compare the severity of H-Y with total scores of MMSE, and with total scores of FAB among three groups. We also analyzed the correlation between falls and total scores of MMSE, and total scores of FAB using multiplex logistic-regression analyses. The results of which demonstrated that total scores of FAB were useful for predicting falls, and PD patients with total scores of FAB below 13 out of 18 may have more tendency to fall. In conclusion, frontal lobe dysfunction may be the riskiest predictive factor for tendency of falls.