Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-8)

Introduction[edit | edit source]

Parkinson disease representation

The 8-item version of the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-8) is a shortened version of the 39-item Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39). It was developed to reduce the respondent burden and increase convenience for use among persons with Parkinson's Disease in clinical settings.[1] PDQ-39 comprises 39 questions from 8 dimensions which include mobility, activities of daily of living, emotional well-being, stigma, social support, cognition, communication, and bodily discomfort.[2]. PDQ-8 was constructed by taking one question from each domain of PDQ-39.[1]

Intended Population[edit | edit source]

It is a patient-reported outcome measure used to quantify the quality of life among persons with Parkinson's disease.[1]

Method of Use[edit | edit source]

  1. Equipment Required: It can be administered traditionally via pen and paper or telephonically.
  2. Training Required: There is no training required prior to administering the PDQ-8.
  3. Time Required: It takes approximately 5-10 minutes to administer.


Note: This instrument is copyrighted and its use requires applying for a licence from Oxford University Innovation.

Instrument and Scoring[edit | edit source]

It is an eight-question instrument with questions taken from each domain of PDQ-39: mobility, activities of daily of living, emotional well-being, stigma, social support, cognition, communication, and bodily discomfort.

The questions are:

Due to having Parkinson’s disease, how often during the last month have you…

  1. Had difficulty getting around in public?
  2. Had difficulty dressing yourself?
  3. Felt depressed?
  4. Had problems with your close personal relationships?
  5. Had problems with your concentration, e.g. when reading or watching TV?
  6. Felt unable to communicate with people properly?
  7. Had painful muscle cramps or spasms?
  8. Felt embarrassed in public due to having Parkinson’s disease?


Each question is scored between 0 and 4 as follows:

  • Never = 0
  • Occasionally = 1
  • Sometimes = 2
  • Often = 3
  • Always or cannot do at all = 4


Finally, the total score is calculated after adding the individual scores. A higher score signifies poorer quality of life.

(Click here to download a sample copy of PDQ-8)

It has been translated to multiple languages. The translated versions can be found here.

Psychometrics[edit | edit source]

Inter-rater/ Intra-rater reliability: There is a strong correlation between the summary indices of the PDQ-8 and the PDQ-39 (r=0.93, P<0.001).[3]

Internal Consistency: The PDQ-8 has acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.80; item-scale correlation efficient: 0.56–0.72).[3]

Validity: The PDQ-8 has excellent convergent and concurrent validity.[4]

Additional Resources[edit | edit source]

User Manual for PDQ-8

The PDQ-39 form can be found here.

For queries related to license application, click here to contact the licence holder - Oxford University Innovation.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Peto V, Jenkinson C, Fitzpatrick R. PDQ-39: a review of the development, validation and application of a Parkinson's disease quality of life questionnaire and its associated measures. J Neurol. 1998 May;245 Suppl 1:S10-4.
  2. Hagell P, Whalley D, McKenna SP, Lindvall O. Health status measurement in Parkinson's disease: validity of the PDQ-39 and Nottingham Health Profile. Mov Disord. 2003 Jul;18(7):773-83.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Chen K, Yang YJ, Liu FT, Li DK, Bu LL, Yang K, et al. Evaluation of PDQ-8 and its relationship with PDQ-39 in China: a three-year longitudinal study. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2017 Aug 24;15(1):170.
  4. Huang TT, Hsu HY, Wang BH, Chen KH. Quality of life in Parkinson's disease patients: validation of the Short-Form Eight-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-8) in Taiwan. Qual Life Res. 2011 May;20(4):499-505.