Parkinson's disease: A scoping review of the quantitative and qualitative evidence of its diagnostic accuracy in primary care.

Out of 1844 studies identified, only six studies met the inclusion criteria. Five were from high income and one from a middle-income nation. Of these, three studies identified significant knowledge gaps of GPs in diagnosing PD using a pre and post knowledge base intervention assessment. Delay in appropriate referral due to delayed symptom identification was reported in one study. Only one study compared the accuracy of primary care PD diagnosis and reported that although specialists' diagnosis showed more sensitivity, GPs had higher specificity in diagnosing PD. However, this study was found to have methodological issues leading to bias in the findings. Conclusion Our scoping review shows that there are no well conducted studies assessing the diagnostic accuracy of PD diagnosis by GPs. This calls for more focussed research in this area as diagnostic delays and errors may lead to potentially harmful but preventable delays in treatment initiation resulting in decreased quality of life for individuals suffering from Parkinson's disease.