Active Lifestyle, Diet Associated With Lower Rate of All-Cause Mortality Among Patients With PD

An active lifestyle and healthy dietary pattern were linked with a lower rate of all-cause mortality among patients with Parkinson disease (PD), according to findings published in JAMA Network Open.

Data from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study between 1986 and 2012 for male participants and from the Nurses’ Health Study between 1984 and 2012 for female participants were included in this population-based cohort study.

Eligible study participants with PD had completed a baseline dietary assessment and researchers analyzed data from January 2021 to February 2022.

The Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) was used to assess prediagnosis diet quality and the metabolic equivalent task (MET) was used to assess physical activity by hours per week.

To estimate the association of physical activity and diet with mortality individually and jointly, researchers utilized Cox proportional hazards regression models, which were adjusted for caffeine and total energy intake, age, and other lifestyle factors.

Of 1251 patients included, 652 (52.1%) were men with a median age of 73.4 years at diagnosis. Researchers reported that 942 patients died during the 32 to 34 years of follow-up.

For prediagnosis analyses, the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) comparing the highest vs the lowest AHEI quartile was 0.69 (95% CI, 0.56-0.85) and for postdiagnosis analyses it was 0.57 (95% CI, 0.42-0.78).

“Similar results were obtained for cumulative mean MET hours per week in the prediagnosis analyses (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.57-0.87) and postdiagnosis analyses (HR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.35-0.63),” wrote study authors. “The inverse association persisted for PD-specific mortality (postdiagnosis AHEI: HR, 0.52 [95% CI, 0.33-0.80]; postdiagnosis physical activity: HR, 0.37 [95% CI, 0.25-0.55]).”
The adjusted HR was 0.51 (95% CI, 0.36-0.73) for individuals in the highest vs lowest tertiles for both variables in the joint analyses of diet quality and physical activity prior to PD diagnosis. After PD diagnosis, the HR for diet quality and physical activity was 0.35 (95% CI, 0.23-0.52).

“Consuming a healthy diet and engaging in physical activity or exercise could be targeted to improve PD outcomes,” concluded study authors. “Reverse causation cannot be totally excluded, and the results need to be interpreted with caution.”

Reference:
Zhang X, Molsberry SA, Schwarzschild MA, Ascherio A, Gao X. Association of diet and physical activity with all-cause mortality among adults with Parkinson disease. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(8):e2227738. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.27738