Primary Image

RehabMeasures Instrument

Parkinson’s Disease Activities of Daily Living Scale

Last Updated

Purpose

The Parkinson’s Disease ADL scale is a self-report ADL scale designed to assess difficulties in daily activities due to PD.

Link to Instrument

Acronym PADLS

Assessment Type

Patient Reported Outcomes

Administration Mode

Paper & Pencil

Cost

Free

Diagnosis/Conditions

  • Parkinson's Disease & Movement Disorders

Key Descriptions

  • The PADLS is a five-level scale with five mutually exclusive levels that furnish a single global rating. Higher scores indicate greater difficulty in ADLs.

Number of Items

5

Equipment Required

  • Paper
  • Pencil/ Pen

Time to Administer

5 minutes

5 minutes or less

Required Training

No Training

Age Ranges

Adult

18 - 64

years

Elderly Adult

65 +

years

Instrument Reviewers

Alicia Esposito, PT, DPT, NCS & the PD EDGE Task Force of the Neurology Section of the APTA

ICF Domain

Activity
Participation

Measurement Domain

Activities of Daily Living

Professional Association Recommendation

Recommendations for use of the instrument from the Neurology Section of the American Physical Therapy Association’s Multiple Sclerosis Taskforce (MSEDGE), Parkinson’s Taskforce (PD EDGE), Spinal Cord Injury Taskforce (PD EDGE), Stroke Taskforce (StrokEDGE), Traumatic Brain Injury Taskforce (TBI EDGE), and Vestibular Taskforce (Vestibular EDGE) are listed below. These recommendations were developed by a panel of research and clinical experts using a modified Delphi process.

For detailed information about how recommendations were made, please visit: 

 

Abbreviations:

 

HR

Highly Recommend

R

Recommend

LS / UR

Reasonable to use, but limited study in target group  / Unable to Recommend

NR

Not Recommended

 

Recommendations Based on Parkinson Disease Hoehn and Yahr stage: 

 

I

II

III

IV

V

PD EDGE

LS/UR

LS/UR

LS/UR

LS/UR

LS/UR

 

Recommendations for entry-level physical therapy education and use in research:

 

Students should learn to administer this tool? (Y/N)

Students should be exposed to tool? (Y/N)

Appropriate for use in intervention research studies? (Y/N)

Is additional research warranted for this tool (Y/N)

PD EDGE

No

No

No

Not reported

Considerations

The author states that the PADLS provides health professionals a reliable index of self-rated ADL, which takes little time to complete. The PADLS provides a single global rating and does not allow the individual to rate the severity of specific problems. The PADLS is not suitable for use in isolation and must complement existing measures in order to provide the health professional with more comprehensive information on how patients perceive their illness.

Do you see an error or have a suggestion for this instrument summary? Please e-mail us

Parkinson's Disease

back to Populations

Normative Data

Parkinson’s Disease:

(Hobson, Edwards and Meara, 2001; n = 132 with clinically probable PD; mean age: 73.4(9.5); gender (male %): 55; onset of PD (years) 7.8(6.9); disease duration (years): 7.8 (6.9))

Mean PADLS score: 3.0 (1.2)

Test/Retest Reliability

Parkinson’s Disease:

(Hobson, Edwards and Meara, 2001) 

  • Excellent test-retest reliability (r = 0.89)

Construct Validity

Parkinson’s Disease:

(Hobson, Edwards and Meara, 2001) 

  • Excellent correlation between the PADLS and the Webster Scale, a measure of disease severity with higher scores indicating greater disease severity (0.65, p < 0.001). 
  • Adequate correlation between the PADLS and the CAMCOG, the cognitive section of the Cambridge examination for mental disorders of the elderly (-0.41, p < 0.001) 
  • Adequate correlation between the PADLS and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) a 15 item self report of depressive symptoms (0.43, p < 0.001) 
  • Poor correlation between the PADLS and age of patient (0.24, p < 0.05) 
  • Poor correlation between the PADLS and whether the individual’s family visits (0.02) 
  • Adequate correlation between the PADLS and whether the individual’s friends visit (-0.43, p < 0.001) 
  • Adequate correlation between the PADLS and whether the individual is able to visit family (-0.32, p < 0.05) 
  • Adequate correlation between the PADLS and whether the individual is able to visit friends (-0.44, p < 0.001) 
  • Higher total and subset Parkinson’s Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire (PDQL) (better perceived quality of life) were negatively associated with higher PADLS scores

Bibliography

Hobson, J. P., Edwards, N. I., et al. (2001). "The Parkinson's Disease Activities of Daily Living Scale: a new simple and brief subjective measure of disability in Parkinson's disease." Clin Rehabil 15(3): 241-246. 

Martinez-Martin, P., Rodriguez-Blazquez, C., et al. (2008). "Specific patient-reported outcome measures for Parkinson's disease: analysis and applications." Expert Rev Pharmacoecon Outcomes Res 8(4): 401-418.