Quantifying Social Connectedness in Parkinson's Disease: Reliability and Validity of a Clinical Assessment Toolkit.

BACKGROUND

Loneliness and isolation impact health detrimentally but are understudied in Parkinson's disease (PD). Outcome measurement properties for social connection remain unexplored in PD.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the measurement properties of six social connection outcomes in PD.

METHODS

We evaluated internal consistency, structural validity, and construct validity for measures of loneliness (brief UCLA Loneliness Scale [ULS3], short and long de Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale [dJGLS], social isolation [Cohen Social Network Index-SNI total people, SNI high contact networks], and social support brief Perceived Social Support Scale [PSS]).

RESULTS

We administered measures to 178 PD participants (Mage = 67.9; 81.5% at Hoehn & Yahr stage 2). There was strong internal consistency, content validity across outcomes, and a 1-factor structure (PSS, ULS3) and a 2-factor structure (dJGLS) for two measures each.

CONCLUSIONS

We provide a toolbox for clinicians and researchers studying social connection in PD.