Abstract
Individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) often show breakdown in the production and
interpretation of aspects of social communication. However, there is no current method
of assessment for evaluating social communication dysfunction in individuals with
PD. The aim of this study was to develop a self-report questionnaire for individuals
with PD to identify their social communication skills, and further recognize the impact
of PD on social communication. Fifty-one individuals with Parkinson's disease answered
28 survey questions. These questions pertained to emotional expression and perception,
social communication, sarcasm/humor, and pragmatic skills. Exploratory factor analysis
and reliability analysis were conducted to identify items loading onto the factors
and to check the internal consistency of the items. Individuals with PD reported changes
in emotional expression and perception, social communication, sarcasm and humor, and
pragmatic skill domains post-PD diagnosis. No correlations were found between age
or time since diagnosis and emotional expression, social communication, sarcasm, and
humor. This study provides self-reported evidence that individuals with PD experience
social communication challenges. Future research should further quantify these challenges,
study their impact on daily communicative functioning, and use the results to develop
social communication interventions that improve the quality of life for persons with
PD.
Keywords
Parkinson's disease - social communication - questionnaire - sarcasm - nonliteral
- pragmatics
