Study On The Risk Factors For The Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease

Study background and purpose: Parkinson's disease (PD), a progressive neurodegenerative disease, is relatively common among the elderly around all countries and areas in the world. Although a number of sociodemographic, environmental as well as many other factors have been implicated in the previous studies in the etiology of PD, yet none have been unequivocally identified as causal agents. Therefore, the etiology of PD still remains unknown. With the progress of social economy and the substantial increase in longevity of the world's population, there is a growing need to observe and obtain better epidemiological evidence of the relevance for this disease. In China, few comprehensive studies have been conducted to probe the etiological factors related to PD. Based on a large scale epidemiological survey, we collected all sorts of data and estimated the associations of putative risks and protective factors with the onset of PD. We also analyzed the potential interaction effects of interested variations and the trend of dose-effect in order to provide some new and critical epidemiological evidence for further etiological study and disease prevention.Study Subject and methodology: Base on a population-based study, this case-control study was performed. 124 PD cases and 239 controls without PD or other neurological disorders were recruited from previous PD prevalence survey and identified at the neurological clinic, Research Center of Parkinson's Disease of Beijing Union Medical College Hospital. A in-person structured questionnaire, administered in person, to both PD patients and controls, elicited the following data on demographic variables, social-economic status and activities, lifetime smoking habit and passive smoking history, including amounts smoked, years smoking started/quitted, and number of years smoked.