Scale consistance in cognitive status awareness of patients with Parkinson’s disease

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between patients’ awareness of their cognitive symptoms and the presence of cognitive involvement according to neuropsychological tests. Patients and methods: In this cross-sectional study, 539 patients (276 males, 263 females; mean age: 64.3±11.0 years; range, 19 to 88 years) were assessed between September 2020 and June 2023. The Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) scores were recorded in addition to age, sex, education level, and chronic diseases. Patients were classified as having cognitive disorders if their MMSE scores were <26, while those with scores ≥26 were classified as cognitively healthy. The relationship between the frequency of cognitive involvement according to a related question from the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) and the frequency of cognitive disorders according to the MMSE scores was evaluated. Results: No relationship was detected between the frequency of cognitive disorders according to the MMSE scores and the frequency of cognitive involvement according to the corresponding question in the nonmotor component of the MDS-UPDRS (p<0.001). Conclusion: The findings indicate that the cognitive impairment inquiry in the nonmotor section of the MDS-UPDRS is not an effective method for detecting cognitive involvement in Parkinson’s disease.