Mayo Clinic: Parkinson's risk appears to be rising
If it feels like you've been encountering more people with Parkinson's disease, it may not be an illusion.
The incidence of Parkinson's disease rose significantly from 1976 to 2005 and the trend was worse for men 70 and older, Mayo Clinic researchers reported Monday in a study they said was the first to suggest such an increasing trend.
Researchers examined the medical records of anyone in Olmsted County, Minn., who received at least one of the diagnoses related to parkinsonism, a catch-all term that identifies slowness of movement and at least one other symptom such as a tremor while at rest, muscle rigidity or a tendency to fall.
Looking at the records of nearly 1,000 patients, Mayo Clinic concluded:
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• Men of all ages had a 17 percent higher risk of developing parkinsonism and 24 percent higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease for every 10 calendar years.
• Men 70 and older had a 24 percent higher risk of developing parkinsonism and 35 percent higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease for every 10 calendar years.
• There was a possible higher incidence of both parkinsonism and Parkinson's disease in men and women born from 1915 to 1924.
"We have evidence to suggest that there has been a genuine increase in the risk of Parkinson's disease," Dr. Rodolfo Savica, the lead author and a neurologist at Mayo Clinic, said in a statement. "The trend is probably not caused merely by changes in people's awareness or changes in medical practice over time."
Savica cited a "dramatic change in exposure to some risk factors" in the United States. "We know that environmental agents like pesticides or smoking or other agents in the environment have changed in the last 70 years or so."
Researchers, however, urged caution in interpreting the results, saying "the trends could be spurious and need to be confirmed in other populations."
They also noted their study contradicts previous work in the U.S. and Canada that showed no trend and a British study that suggested a possible decline in the occurrence of Parkinson's disease over time.