J Korean Geriatr Soc.  2006 Dec;10(4):296-300.

The Prevalence of Risk Factors for Vascular Disease in Parkinson's Disease; Comparison with Normal Controls and Disease Controls

• Song IU
• Ryu SY
• Lee KS
• Yoo JY
• Kim YI
• Kim HT
• Kim JS

Abstract

Background: Data on the relationship between Parkinson's disease (PD) and stroke have been conflicting, some studies showing a reduced risk of stroke during life because of low prevalence of vascular risk factors, and others indicating an increased risk of strokerelated death. The objective of this study is to determine the frequency of vascular risk factors in PD in relation to an unaffected control group and ischemic stroke patient group.
Methods
We performed a case-control study on 206 consecutive PD patients, 207 ischemic strokes patients (served as "Disease" controls) and 138 age and sex matched normal subjects (served as controls), calculating multivariate risk estimates (odd ratio) for a series of established risk factors for vascular disease.
Results
We found that (1) cigarette smoking (smoker, 0.078, CI=0.034-0.178; ex-smoker, 0.031, CI=0.011-0.088), and diabetes mellitus (0.340, CI=0.169-0.682) were significant less frequent in PD patients than controls, (2) cigarette smoking (smoker, 0.230, CI= 0.094-0.561; ex-smoker, 0.132, CI=0.050-0.348), hypertension (0.283, CI=0.175-0.459), diabetes mellitus (0.257, CI=0.136-0.486), previous stroke (0.063, CI=0.020-0.191), heart disease (0.344, CI=0.176-0.673) than ischemic stroke patients, respectively.
Conclusion
We found the significant negative association of a series of vascular factors with PD, indicating a protective effect of PD against ischemic stroke.

Keyword

Parkinson's disease; Vascular risk factors,"Disease" control

MeSH Terms

Case-Control Studies
Diabetes Mellitus
Heart Diseases
Humans
Hypertension
Parkinson Disease*
Prevalence*
Risk Factors*
Smoking
Stroke
Vascular Diseases*