Parkinson Disease Risk Elevated in Diabetes Patients

Risk of Parkinson disease (PD) is elevated in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), according to the results of a recent study.

In order to investigate the relationship between these conditions, researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study using linked English national Hospital Episode Statistics and mortality data (1999-2011). They constructed a cohort of patients with T2DM, as well as a reference cohort, and estimated subsequent PD risk using Cox regression models.

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Overall, 2,017,115 individuals were included in the T2DM cohort and 6,173,208 were included in the reference cohort. Rates of PD following T2DM were significantly elevated (hazard ratio [HR] 1.32), and the relative increase was greater in patients with complicated T2DM (HR 1.49) and when comparing younger individuals (HR 3.81).

“We report an increased rate of subsequent PD following T2DM in this large cohort study. These findings may reflect shared genetic predisposition and/or disrupted shared pathogenic pathways with potential clinical and therapeutic implications,” the researchers concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Pablo-Fernandez ED, Goldacre R, Pakpoor J, et al. Association between diabetes and subsequent Parkinson disease [published online June 13, 2018]. Neurology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000005771.