Various educational events exist for patients with PD and their CPs, but little quantitative data is available about their interest in such events. We are interested in developing a program for our population and desired input on their preferences.

A needs-based assessment of PD-related health education needs was developed and administered anonymously to our patients and their CPs. Results were analyzed for themes.

One hundred fifteen participants completed surveys. Mean age was 64.98 years (SD±10.69). Participants were mostly female (59.1%), Caucasian/white (94.7%), and Alabama residents (79.1%). Patients were 56.52% of participants (n=65). CPs were younger than patients (62 vs 67 years, p=0.010) and more often female (80.0% vs 43.1%, p<0.001). Previous attendance of PD support groups was 29.8% and of PD educational events was 32.1%. Most participants expressed interest in attending an educational event in the future (72.7%). Interest in a future event was not associated with previous attendance of a support group (p=0.229) or previous attendance of an educational event (p=0.477).

Topics most selected were memory changes (35.7%), current research (33.9%), and medications/procedures (26.8%). Participants preferred presentations by speakers (64.5%) such as movement disorders specialists (64.5%) or other patients (51.8%). Weekday mornings (41.9%) and afternoons (41.0%) for 1-2 hours (64.2%) were popular times. Patients were more likely than CPs to prefer hands-on activities (p=0.016) while CPs chose webinars more often (p=0.046). Those with more/longer experience with PD preferred hearing from physical/occupational/speech therapists (p<=0.012) and having hands-on activities (p<=0.030) more than those with less experience, who more often preferred presentations by speakers (p=0.030) and webinars (p<=0.034).