Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jan-Feb;12(1):69-78.
doi: 10.32598/bcn.12.1.882.11. Epub 2021 Jan 1.

Clinimetrics of the Freezing of Gait Questionnaire for Parkinson Disease During the "off" State

Ghorban Taghizadeh  1 , Seyed Mohammad Fereshtehnejad  2   3 , Pablo Martinez-Martin  4 , Mohammad Taghi Joghataei  5   6 , Fatemeh Mahdizadeh  7 , Sajad Sabbaghi  8 , Sepide Goudarzi  9 , Mahsa Meimandi  10 , Sayed Amir Hasan Habibi  11 , Maryam Mehdizadeh  5   6
Affiliations

Clinimetrics of the Freezing of Gait Questionnaire for Parkinson Disease During the "off" State

Ghorban Taghizadeh et al. Basic Clin Neurosci. 2021 Jan-Feb.

Abstract

Introduction: Freezing of gait, a common PD motor symptom, could increase the risk of falling. This study aimed to investigate the clinimetric attributes of the Freezing of Gait Questionnaire (FOGQ) for people with Parkinson disease in the "off" state.

Methods: A total of 115 patients with Parkinson disease (PD; mean age, 60.25 years) were included. Acceptability, internal consistency (by the Cronbach alpha, and test-retest by Intraclass Correlation [ICC]), and reliability of the Persian-translated version of the FOGQ were examined. Dimensionality was estimated by Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Fall efficacy scale-international, unified Parkinson disease rating scale-II, Berg balance scale, functional reach test, and Parkinson disease questionnaire-39 were applied to determine the convergent validity. Diagnostic accuracy for obtaining optimal cutoff point, separating faller and non-faller groups, was analyzed by Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve analysis and Area Under the Curve (AUC). All tests were carried out in an "off" state.

Results: The Cronbach alpha was high (α=0.92). The test-retest showed high reliability (ICC=0.89). The FOGQ was unidimensional according to the EFA and had acceptable convergent validity with moderate to high correlation with other clinical scales. The optimal cutoff point to discriminate fallers from non-fallers during the "off" state was 9/10, with an AUC of 0.92.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that the FOGQ has appropriate reliability, validity, and discriminative ability for measuring FOG in patients with PD during the "off" state.

Keywords: Diagnostic accuracy; Gait; Parkinson’s disease; Questionnaire; Reliability; Validity; “Off”state.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest The authors declared no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Aaronson N. K., Acquadro C., Alonso J., Apolone G., Bucquet D., Bullinger M., et al. (1992). International quality of life assessment (IQOLA) project. Quality of Life Research, 1(5), 349–51. [DOI: 10.1007/BF00434949] [PMID ] - DOI - PubMed
    1. Azad A., Hassani Mehraban A., Mehrpour M., Mohammadi B. (2014). Clinical assessment of fear of falling after stroke: Validity, reliability and responsiveness of the Persian version of the Fall Efficacy Scale-International. Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 28, 131. [PMID ] [PMCID ] - PMC - PubMed
    1. Azad A., Taghizadeh G., Ghorbanpoor H., Lajevardi L., Farhadian M. (2017). Relationship between laterality and handedness with the higher order sensory functions and manual dexterity of the elderly. Iranian Rehabilitation Journal, 15(4), 367–76. [DOI: 10.29252/nrip.irj.15.4.367] - DOI
    1. Babaei-Ghazani A., Mohammadi H., Shahidi Gh. A., Habibi S. A. H., Forogh B., Ahadi T., et al. (2017). Reliability and validity of the Persian translation of Berg Balance Scale in Parkinson disease. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 29(5), 857–62. [DOI: 10.1007/s40520-016-0682-7] [PMID ] - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bewick V., Cheek L., Ball J. (2004). Statistics review 13: Receiver operating characteristic curves. Critical Care, 8(6), 508. [DOI: 10.1186/cc3000] [PMID ] [PMCID ] - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources