2017 Reports

Validation of known risk factors and socioeconomic status associated with Parkinson’s disease: A retrospective nationwide 11-year population-based cohort study in South Korea

Kim, Hyoung Seop; Kim, Jong Moon; Kwon, Junbeom; Lim, Hyun-Sun

Objective: To validate various known risk factors of Parkinsonism and to establish basic information to present public health policy with 10-year follow-up cohort model.
Methods: This population based nation-wide study was performed in the republic of South Korea using the database of regular health check in 2003 and 2004 of National Health Insurance Database of reimbursement claim of Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service of South Korea with 10 years follow up.
Results: The authors identified 7,746 patients with Parkinsonism. The old age, hypertension, diabetes, depression, anxiety, taking statin medication, high body mass index, non-smoking, non-alcohol drinking and low socioeconomic status were each associated with increase in risk of Parkinsonism (fully adjusted Cox proportional hazards model: hazard ratio (HR) 1.259, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.194 to 1.328 for hypertension, HR 1.255, 95% CI 1.186 to 1.329 for diabetes, HR 1.554, 95% CI 1.664 to 1.965 for depression, HR 1.808, 95% CI 1.462 to 1.652 for anxiety, and HR 1.157, 95% CI 1.072 to 1.250 for taking statin).
Conclusions: In our study, old age, depression, anxiety, and nonsmoker were found to be risk factors of Parkinsonism, coincided with previous studies. However, gender, hypertension, diabetes, taking statin medication, non-alcohol drinking, and lower socioeconomic status differ from some previous studies and need to be verified in subsequent studies.