Abstract
Background
Parkinson disease (PD) is less common in women and studies have shown that oestrogen
is protective to dopaminergic neurons in primate models. The findings in clinical
and epidemiological studies have not clearly established this observation. This study
was undertaken to evaluate associations of reproductive characteristics in a population
with higher fertility and risk of PD among women.
Methods
Trained interviewers used structured interviews to obtain information about demographic
characteristics and reproductive history from women subjects with PD. An equal number
of healthy age matched female controls were also studied to compare their reproductive
characteristics with women with PD.
Results
We recruited 81 consecutive women with PD and age matched healthy women controls.
Mean age at interview was 55.89±10.07 years for women with PD, 55.05±10.53 years for controls. Significant positive correlation was observed with cumulative
length of pregnancy (r=0.32; p=0.003), age at menopause (r=0.55; p=0.001) and length of fertile life with age of onset of PD (r=0.27; p=0.02). Gravidity (r=0.26; p=0.02) and parity (r=0.35; p=0.001) also correlated positively with age at onset.
Conclusion
The onset of PD is delayed in women with higher number of pregnancies, longer fertile
life and longer cumulative length of pregnancies. This could also explain the epidemiological
observations of lower incidence of PD in women and the protective role of estrogens.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 30, 2012
Accepted:
May 9,
2012
Received in revised form:
May 8,
2012
Received:
November 17,
2011
Footnotes
☆Financial disclosure/conflict of interest: None of the authors have any financial disclosure to make or have any conflict of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Published by Elsevier Inc.
