Validating a screening questionnaire for parkinsonism in Australia

Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder in elderly people. Epidemiological studies of the disease can be labour intensive. A two phase design including a screening questionnaire as the first phase has become a popular method in prevalence studies of Parkinson's disease. Such a design has many advantages including less work for assessing physicians and enhanced recruitment of people to be screened. However, its wider application may be questioned because validation has been limited to samples that are drawn from hospitals (or clinics) and may be inappropriate for a community setting. This study assesses whether validating screening questionnaire by using a hospital sample yields the same result as a community based sample. Furthermore, it seeks to establish whether the screening instrument can be simplified to involve less questions. The findings show that some of the questions used in the screening phase yield different responses when comparing a hospital group with a community group. This study also provides a simplified model of questions that may be relevant for screening in the community setting.