Risk factors of Parkinson's disease in Indian patients

Epidemiological data on risk factors of Parkinson's disease (PD) are not av ailable from India. In a case control study, we investigated environmental and genetic risk factors in the etiology of idiopathic Parkinson's disease. Three hundred seventy-seven patients of Parkinson disease (301 men, 76 wom en, mean +/- SD age 56.78 +/- 11.08 years) and equal number of age matched (+/-3 years) neurological controls (271 men, 106 women, mean +/- SD age 56. 62 +/- 11.17 years) were included in the study. Conditional logistic regres sion model was used to determine the risk factors of PD. We found that male gender, family history of Parkinson's disease, past history of depression of up to 10-year duration and well water drinking of more than 10-year dura tion were significantly associated with occurrence of Parkinson's disease, whereas tobacco smoking of up to 20-year duration and exposure to pets had protective effect. However, tobacco smoking of more than 20-year duration, well water drinking of up to 10-year duration, vegetarian dietary habit, oc cupation involving physical exertion, rural living, farming, exposure to in secticides, herbicides, rodenticides, alcohol intake and family history of neurodegenerative diseases had no significant correlation with occurrence o f PD in the patient population studied. Results of our study support the hy pothesis of multifactorial etiology of PD with environmental factors acting on a genetically susceptible host. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ ts reserved.