EPIDEMIOLOGIC OBSERVATIONS ON PARKINSONS-DISEASE - INCIDENCE AND MORTALITY IN A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY OF MIDDLE-AGED MEN

We determined age-specific and age-adjusted incidence rates and mortal ity rates of idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD)in a cohort of men fol lowed for 29 years. Since enrollment in 1965, the Honolulu Heart Study has followed 8,006 American men of Japanese or Okinawan ancestry. Res creening of the entire cohort, completed in 1994, included attempts to detect all prevalent and incident cases of PD, parkinsonism, and rela ted conditions. PD incidence rates and age-incidence patterns were sim ilar to rates previously published for Caucasian men in Europe and the United States, and were higher than incidence rates published for Asi an men living in Asian nations; Prevalence patterns appeared to corres pond more closely to patterns observed in developed nations than in As ian nations. PD was associated with markedly increased mortality that appeared to result from effects of both absolute age and disease durat ion. There was no firm evidence for differences in birth cohort risks of PD. These data may have implications for maturational and environme ntal theories of PD etiology.