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. 2020 Dec;35(12):2129-2133.
doi: 10.1002/mds.28293. Epub 2020 Sep 18.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Access to Parkinson's Disease Medication

Julia Ling-Yu Cheong  1 , Zhao Hang Keith Goh  1 , Connie Marras  2 , Caroline M Tanner  3 , Meike Kasten  4 , Alastair J Noyce  5   6 ; Movement Disorders Society Epidemiology Study Group
Affiliations

The Impact of COVID-19 on Access to Parkinson's Disease Medication

Julia Ling-Yu Cheong et al. Mov Disord. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Many countries have implemented drastic measures to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictions and diversion of resources may have negatively affected patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Our aim was to examine whether COVID-19 had an impact on access to PD medication by region and income.

Methods: This study was conducted as part of a survey sent to members of the Movement Disorders Society focusing on access to PD medication globally.

Results: Of 346 responses, 157 (45.4%) agreed that COVID-19 had affected access to PD medication, while 189 (54.6%) disagreed. 22.8% of high-income and 88.9% of low-income countries' respondents agreed that access to PD medication was affected by COVID-19. 59% of all 'yes' respondents reported increased disability of patients as an impact.

Conclusions: Access to PD medication is likely to have been affected by COVID-19 and result in deterioration of patients' symptomatic control. Resource-poor countries appear to be disproportionately affected compared to more affluent countries. © 2020 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease; COVID-19; epidemiology; access; medication.

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References

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