Self Reports of Day-to-Day Function in a Small Cohort of People with Prodromal and Early HD

Day-to-day functioning is a component of health-related quality of life and is an important end point for therapies to treat Huntington Disease (HD). Specific areas of day-to-day function changes have not been reported for prodromal or very early stages of HD. An exploratory self-report telephone interview was conducted with sixteen people with prodromal HD or early HD who met criteria designed to capture research participants most near to motor diagnosis. All completed semi-structured interviews on function in nine aspects of day-to-day life. Out of 16, 14 reported changes in at least one area. All day-to-day function areas were endorsed by at least one participant with driving being the most common area endorsed by 11/16. Changes in ability to perform some day-to-day tasks are experienced by people who are close to the time of clinical diagnosis for HD. Functional ability is likely to be an important component of outcome assessments of clinical trials and in ongoing clinical management.