Mortality and causes of death in patients with Parkinson's disease: a nationwide population-based cohort study

Dong-Woo Ryu; Kyungdo Han; A-Hyun Cho

doi:10.3389/fneur.2023.1236296

Mortality and causes of death in patients with Parkinson's disease: a nationwide population-based cohort study

Front Neurol. 2023 Aug 31:14:1236296. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1236296. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Dong-Woo Ryu¹, Kyungdo Han², A-Hyun Cho¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Soongsil University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Objective: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease involving multiple systems that can affect mortality. This study aimed to compare all-cause and cause-specific mortality between people with PD and without PD.

Methods: This population-based prospective cohort study is based on Korean National Health Insurance Service data. The primary outcome was the hazard ratio (HR) of all-cause and cause-specific mortality for PD from 2010 to 2019. Cox proportional hazards regression was applied to calculate HRs under crude and three adjusted models with epidemiologic variables.

Results: A total of 8,220 PD patients and 41,100 age- and sex-matched controls without PD were registered. Ten-year mortality was 47.9% in PD patients and 20.3% in non-PD controls. The mortality rate was higher among older and male participants. The leading cause of death in PD was nervous system diseases (38.73%), and 97.1% of those were extrapyramidal and movement disorders, followed by circulatory diseases (15.33%), respiratory diseases (12.56%), and neoplasms (9.7%). PD contributed to an increased risk of all-cause death with an HR of 2.96 (95% CI = 2.84-3.08). HRs of death for PD were 3.07 (95% CI = 2.74-3.45) from respiratory diseases, 1.93 (95% CI = 1.75-2.13) from circulatory diseases, 2.35 (95% CI = 2.00-2.77) from external causes, and 2.69 (95% CI = 2.10-3.43) from infectious diseases.

Conclusion: These results showed that PD was related to a higher risk of mortality in all ages and sexes. The leading causes of death in PD were nervous, circulatory, respiratory, infectious diseases, and external causes.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease; cause of death; epidemiology; mortality; population characteristics.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Institute of Clinical Medicine Research at Yeouido St. Mary's Hospital, Catholic University of Korea (YSI21H003).