Effects of Disability and Self-care Agency on the Activities of Daily Living in Patients with Essential Tremor

Abstract

Objective: Essential tremor (ET) is the most common movement disorder in the general population. Approximately, 90% of patients have upper extremity tremors. Patients with ET generally have a problem in motor control and some have serious problems in eating, drinking, writing, and other activities of daily living (ADL). Thus, ET may cause disability and self-care problems in their lives. Recent studies showed that ADL was impaired in 73% of patients. This study aimed to determine the effects of disability and self-care agency on ADL in patients with ET. Materials and Methods: This study includes 50 patients with ET. Brief disability questionnaire, self-care agency scale, Katz index of independence in ADL, and Fahn Tolasa Marin tremor scale were evaluated in the patients. Results: Among all patients, 58% (n=29) were female. The mean age of patients was 62.1 years. In addition, 72% of patients had hand tremors. More than 52% of patients had stage 2 diseases according to the Fahn Tolasa Marin tremor scale. Disability was detected in 62% of patients. In general, the mean disability scores were significantly higher in female patients compared to males. A positive correlation was found between disability and ADL. Moreover, a significant relationship between self-care agency and ADL was found. Conclusion: Our study shows that disability increases as the stage of the disease progress. In addition, as the disability due to ET becomes more severe, the self-care agency of patients decreases. Moreover, their dependence on ADL has been observed.