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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Aging Neurosci.

Sec. Parkinson’s Disease and Aging-related Movement Disorders

Volume 17 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2025.1488009

Knowledge of Parkinson's disease among non-PD specialists: a webbased survey in South China

Provisionally accepted
  • The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine and Guangdong Provincial Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a prevalent, disabling neurodegenerative disorder. Early diagnosis and treatment of PD remains challenging due to the absence of definitive diagnostic tests and the non-specificity of its clinical manifestations.Initial consultations for PD symptoms often involve specialists who are not specifically trained in PD. Consequently, it is imperative to assess the general knowledge regarding PD among these specialists to develop optimal educational strategies and enhance early recognition and diagnosis of PD.We developed a questionnaire covering motor symptoms, non-motor symptoms, prodromal symptoms, risk factors and antiparkinsonian medications based on published guidelines, and conducted the web-based survey via Wenjuan xing (https://www.wjx.cn/) among physicians not specializing in PD in Guangdong Province, China.Results: A total of 312 respondents, working in 28 diverse departments across 64 hospitals of three different categories, were eligible for data analysis. Notably, 95.2% of the respondents were aware of rest tremor as a motor symptom, yet only 76.9% recognized bradykinesia as a motor symptom. Regarding non-motor symptoms, erectile dysfunction, urinary dysfunction, restless legs, olfactory loss, orthostatic hypotension, rapid eye movement behavior disorder (RBD), lower back pain and diaphoresis, were recognized by less than 50% of the respondents. Additionally, with the exception of subthreshold parkinsonism or abnormal quantitative motor testing, prodromal symptoms such as excessive daytime somnolence, depression (± anxiety), olfactory loss, urinary dysfunction, RBD, and constipation were recognized by 36.5-48.7% of the respondents. First-degree relatives with PD received recognition from 86.5% of the respondents, whereas the remaining risk factors were recognized by 50-60% of the participants. Concerning protective factors for PD, recognition was limited to no more than 23%. Levodopa and dopamine releasers were the most widely recognized antiparkinsonian medications, while the recognition of other medications was below 70%. Variables such as medical degrees, professional titles, hospital categories, and education subjects contributed to statistical differences in PD knowledge.Among non-PD specialists in south China, current knowledge regarding PD, including non-motor symptoms, prodromal symptoms, risk and protective factors, and antiparkinsonian medications, is relatively inadequate. This necessitates targeted education and training to improve their understanding and recognition of PD.

    Keywords: Parkinson's disease, Web-based survey, Motor symptoms, non-motor symptoms, Prodromal Symptoms, Risk factors, antiparkinsonian medications

    Received: 29 Aug 2024; Accepted: 27 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 LYU, Mao, Li, Zheng, Sun and Su. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Qiaozhen Su, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine and Guangdong Provincial Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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