RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEVEL OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, QUALITY OF LIFE AND FATIGUE IN INDIVIDUALS DIAGNOSED WITH PARKINSON DISEASE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Parkinson´s disease; fatigue; COVID-19.
Faced with a global pandemic, the main strategy adopted at the beginning was social isolation and the need for physical distancing from the population, especially for populations considered at risk, to which individuals diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) were included. These, therefore, drastically reduced their physical exercise practices, considerably worsening their quality of life and increasing the levels of fatigue to perform activities of daily living. Objective: To verify whether levels of physical activity and quality of life can predict fatigue in individuals with Parkinson's disease, during social isolation in the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods: The study included 65 individuals with PD who answered questionnaires sent electronically through applications. They were evaluated using the quality of life questionnaire (PDQ-39), the level of physical activity using the Baecke questionnaire for the elderly and using the fatigue severity scale. Results: 46 individuals had fatigue (70.8%), sedentary lifestyle affected (56.9%) of the 65 participants. Only the quality of life score was able to predict fatigue (R = 0.684, adjusted R² = 0.460). Conclusion: Despite the level of physical activity demonstrating that more than half of the studied population was sedentary, only quality of life proved to be a predictor of fatigue in individuals with PD during the period of physical distancing.